European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology
Prevalence and predictors of intimate partner violence among women attending infertility clinic in south-western Nigeria
Introduction
Infertility is a common gynaecological problem that is associated with social stigma, social neglect, economic deprivation, emotional stress, unhappiness and marital instability [1]. It is a global problem with regional variation in the prevalence rate and the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 8–12% of couples would experience difficulty in conception after 1 year of regular unprotected sexual intercourse [2], [3]. Both male and female factors have been implicated in the aetiology of infertility with each factor being responsible in about 30–40% of cases while the remaining 30% are due to the interaction of both female and male factors [4]. However, the woman is often blamed for the couple's infertility in most cases and suffers deprivation economically, socially and emotionally as consequences [3], [5], [6]. In fact, infertility is a major cause of marital discord and divorce [2].
Violence against women is a global major health and human right concerns as this affects millions of women all over the world across ethnicity, culture, socioeconomic and educational classes. The Declaration on the elimination of violence against women, adopted by the United Nation in 1992, defines violence against women as “any act of gender based violence that results or likely to result in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women including threats of such harm, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty whether occurring in public or private life [7]. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that at least one in five women have experienced violence in their lives [8].
There are several studies on risk factors for domestic violence in pregnancy while studies on domestic violence and infertility are limited in Nigeria. It has been found that women with infertility are twice more likely to be at risk of suffering from violence than women who have children [2], [6]. The life time prevalence of domestic violence against women with infertility varies widely all over the world: it is 1.8% in Hong Kong [9], 33.6% in Turkey [2] and 61.8% in Iran [6] while one of the few available studies from Nigeria reported 41.8% [10]. Women who experience violence are more likely to have depression, anxiety, psychosomatic symptoms, eating problems and sexual dysfunctions. The effects of violence may also be fatal as a result of intentional homicide, severe injury or suicide [2].
Despite the magnitude and enormous nature of violence against women, there is paucity of studies on violence against women with infertility in Sub-Saharan Africa especially Nigeria. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of violence and its predictive factors among women attending infertility clinic of Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria.
Section snippets
Materials and methods
This cross-sectional study was carried out at the Gynaecological Clinic of Obstetrics and Gynaecology department of Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti from 1st November 2012 to 31st October, 2013. Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria is a tertiary health institution that serves as a referral centre for the Specialist and General hospitals as well as health care centres in the state. There are also referrals from the neighbouring states (Ondo, Osun and
Results
A total of 53 (31.2%) reported history of having experienced violence as a result of their infertility. There were no significant differences between the women in the abused and non-abused groups in their mean age (33.74 ± 4.93; 32.60 ± 5.28, p = 0.174), in duration of marriage (5.33 ± 3.41; 4.69 ± 3.10, p = 0.562) and in duration of infertility (4.17 ± 2.97; 3.72 ± 2.91, p = 0.632) respectively. The women with infertility reported one or more forms of violence against them. Psychological violence was the
Comments
Violence against infertile women is an important health problem with serious consequences for their physical and mental health. The prevalence of domestic violence against women with infertility in this study was 31.6% which is lower than 41.8% reported in a similar study carried out among women with infertility in Northern Nigeria by Ameh et al. [10] and 61.8% from infertile couples in an Iranian setting by Ardabily et al. [6] but higher than 1.8% reported among infertile women in India by
Conflict of interest
The authors reported no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledged all the women who participated in this study and the house officers who administered the questionnaires to the women.
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