ABSTRACT
To Estimate prevalence of domestic violence and associated risk factors among pregnant women attendingthe Federal General Hospital, Islamabad. Descriptive cross sectional study. This research was conducted in the Federal General Hospital, Islamabad from May 2014 to October 2014. A descriptive cross sectional survey was carried out on 150 pregnant women by employing systematic sampling. Pregnant women without any serious medical complication were selected for study. Standardized, pretested, domestic violence questionnaire based on PDHS 2012-2013 was used to assess domestic violence during pregnancy. A SPSS version 16.0 was used for data entry and analysis. Descriptive analysis of all categorical variables in form of frequencies and percentages along with binary logistic regression wasapplied. Overall, [24.3%] women experienced one form of abuse, answering yes to at least one of the five domestic violence questions. This study demonstrated the educational level of pregnant women; income, parity, year since married and women empowerment were significantly [p<0.001] associated with presence of domestic violence. Parity was a strong predictor of physical abuse [p<0.001; OR=2.8,95%CI=1.3-3.6]. Women who belong to low socio-economic income [<10,000/month] were at significantly high risk [p<0.001: OR=1.5, 95%CI=0.9-3.3] of physical abuse as compared to women with middle and high income [20,000-50,00/month] . Prevalence of domestic violence among pregnant women is very high in our part of the world. The statistically significant associated risk factors with the domestic violence are low educational level of pregnant women along with low income, parity, and poor socio-economic status