Domestic violence among women attending out-patient clinics in Ain Shams University Hospitals, Cairo, Egypt

ABSTRACT

Violence affects millions of women worldwide and it cuts across cultural and religious barriers, impeding the women's right to participate fully in the society. A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of domestic violence among ever married females presenting to out patient clinics in Am Shams university hospitals and to identify factors affecting it. Out of a total number of 509 women, 89.8% had experienced one or more episodes of violent behavior by their husbands of which 56%, 88.4% and 47.9% suffered physical, control and threat violence. Both univariate and multivariate analysis was done. The most common form of violence among the study group was husband's shouting followed by being kept short of money. About 34.2% had been beaten by their husbands and 17.1% were forced to do sex. Using multiple logistic regression it was found that smoking husband and economic problems were independent significant factors associated with all forms of violence. Suffering violence was significantly associated with different forms of health complaints and only 9.1% had been asked by their doctors on domestic violence exposure. This proposes the importance of effective screening, diagnosis and management of domestic violence victims