Perception and prevalence of domestic violence in the study population

Abstract

Background:Domestic violence is a major contributor to physical and mental ill health of the victim, and it is evident to some degree, in every society of the world.Objectives:1) To study perception about domestic violence in the study population. 2) To compare prevalence of domestic violence within the three subgroups of the study population (i.e. spouses of psychotic patients, spouses of non-psychiatric patients and hospital staff).Materials and Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted among married men and women coming to Dhiraj General Hospital. Interviews were conducted using a semi-structured questionnaire. Inquiry was done about their perception regarding domestic violence, own experience any time in their life, and about the form of violence. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS.Results:42.7% of study participants had never heard the words domestic violence. The overall prevalence of any form of violence in the study population as a whole was 32.3%. There was no significant difference found in the proportion of domestic violence among the three groups. The prevalence of physical, emotional, sexual and economic domestic violence was 16.3%, 25.3%, 2% and 11.3% respectively. Younger age group and female sex were significantly associated with the occurrence of domestic violence.Conclusion:Apart from the high prevalence of domestic violence in the present era, it is evident from the study that the participants’ perception about domestic violence was low. Efforts should be made to raise public consciousness and reporting of domestic violence and its attendant consequences.

Economic abuse and its associations with symptoms of common mental disorders among women in a cross-sectional survey in informal settlements in Mumbai, India

“…Two strengths were the inclusion of abuse by family members other than intimate partners (important in our context), and the use of established scales to examine associations with mental health symptoms. The questions we used to identify economic abuse were similar to items used in other studies [27,28,71,72], and our findings fell within the reported ranges from India [40][41][42][43] and other countries [18,29,33,34]. Economic abuse rarely occurs in isolation and most women who reported it were more likely to report physical, sexual, or emotional abuse [17,35].…”

“…It characterises economic abuse as a form of domestic violence, an advance given that it is often not considered or recognised beyond dowry violence [ 39 ]. Studies on economic abuse in India have reported lifetime prevalence ranging from 10% in a community-based study in Haryana [ 40 ], 11% among both men and women attending a general hospital in Gujarat [ 41 ], 37% among women outpatients at an Urban Health Centre in Punjab [ 42 ], and 89% in a four-site study [ 43 ].…”

Intimate Partner Violence, Childhood Abuse, and In-Law Abuse Among Women Utilizing Community Health Services in Gujarat, India

“…The majority of previous studies on abuse experience in India mainly focused on physical and sexual abuse. Studies on IPV in India that included emotional abuse show contradictory results: The prevalence of physical abuse is higher than that of emotional abuse (Sudha & Morrison, 2011) or vice versa (Dalal, 2011; Shah et al, 2012). Little is known about how emotional abuse directly or indirectly affects the occurrence and severity of physical or sexual abuse.…”

A Study on Prevalence of Domestic Violence among Women in Servant\'s Quarters of a Tertiary Care Hospital in North India

“…30 In our study, 50% of women had compromised with the situation, which is in agreement with other studies (2012). 31 The results of several other studies indicate that intervening social support acts as an external medium that reduces domestic violence in families. 32 This correlation shows compassionate relationships peripheral to the family can promote healthy behaviors inside the family, and how the presence of social support may act as a protective and an immunizing factor to omit violence towards women from their spouses.…”