Intimate partner violence and COVID-19 among reproductive age women: A community-based cross-sectional survey, Ethiopia

Introduction: Intimate partner violence is one of the most common psychological, physical, and sexual assaults toward women which suit the entire life of women, and nowadays, the magnitude accelerates due to coronavirus pandemic. Hence, this study was aimed to examine the prevalence of intimate partner violence and predictors during coronavirus among childbearing-age residents in Debre Berhan. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional survey was employed from 1 May to 1 July 2020. Eight items of women abuse screening tool were used to estimate intimate partner violence. Trained data collectors directly interview randomly selected participants. The data were entered using Epi-info V. 7 and analyzed using SPSS V. 23. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the prevalence of intimate partner violence and the frequency distribution of other variables. During bivariate analysis, predictor variables with a p-value less than 0.25 were nominated to further analysis. An adjusted odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval was used and a p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result: A total of 700 participants were included with a response rate of 95.1%. The prevalence of intimate partner violence in the past single year was 19% with 95% confidence interval = 16.1–21.9. Besides, the prevalence of emotional (19.9%, 95% confidence interval = 16.9–22.8), sexual (10.9%, 95% confidence interval = 8.6–13.2) and physical (9.4%, 95% confidence interval = 7.3–11.6) violence was reported. Women with depressive symptoms, overweight, suicidal ideation, and body image disturbance were significantly associated with intimate partner violence, but not educational status, employment, income, stressful life events, lifetime alcohol use, suicidal attempt, and abortion. Conclusion and recommendation: Nearly one out of five interviewed participants had intimate partner violence. Being overweight, having poor body image, and having depression increase intimate partner violence. Special preventive measures and treatment, and other legal services should be taken to alleviate the predictor variables and intimate partner violence.