Intimate Partner Violence: A Potential Challenge for Women’s Health in Angola

Intimate partner violence (IPV), as the most common form of violence against women, is recognised as a fundamental violation of women’s human rights and a significant public health concern worldwide. IPV is also a widespread phenomenon in Africa where the associated health challenges can be particularly serious due to fragile healthcare systems. To date, there is no systematic research on IPV and its association with healthcare use among adult women in Angola. Therefore, we conducted the present study on IPV among women of childbearing age (15–49 years) in Angola by analysing cross-sectional data from Angola Demographic and Health Survey (2015–2016). The objectives were to assess the predictors of IPV and its association with healthcare use. IPV was assessed by women’s experience of physical, emotional and sexual violence, and healthcare use was assessed by self-reported medical visits during last 12 months. Logistic regression methods were used to analyse the data. Our findings showed that more than two-fifths of the women reported experiencing any IPV (41.1%, 95%Confidence Interval (CI)= 38.7 to 43.6), with physical IPV (32.3%, 95%CI = 30.3 to 34.5) being the most prevalent followed by emotional (27.3%, 95%CI = 25.3 to 29.4), and sexual IPV (7.4%, 95%I = 6.6 to 8.4). In the multivariate analysis, women’s religious background, husband’s alcohol drinking, spousal age difference, and frequency of attending church appeared to be the most important predictors of IPV. Nonpregnant women who experienced emotional [OR = 1.476, 95%CI = 1.154,1.887] and sexual IPV [Odds Ratio (OR) = 1.393, 95%CI = 1.068,1.816] had increase odds of healthcare visits during last 12 months. In conclusion, our findings suggest a noticeably high prevalence of IPV among Angolan women. Those who experience emotional and sexual IPV might be at higher odds of suffering from medical conditions and should be given special attention in primary care settings.