Prevalence of violence and associated factors among Youth in Northwest Ethiopia: Community-based Cross-sectional study.

Abstract Background Violence as a known serious public health problem affects people in all stages of life, from childhood to the elderly. In society, one of the most visible forms of violence is young people violence, whereas they, adolescents and young adults, are the main victims of such violence. There was limited information on the burden of violence and factors among this age group. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the prevalence of violence and its associated factors among youth in Northwest, Ethiopia.Methods A community-based cross-sectional study design was conducted to estimate the magnitude of violence among youth in Northwest, Ethiopia. The calculated sample size was 1765. A structured and pretested interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. A multi-stage cluster sampling technique was employed to get the study participants. Data were entered using Epi Info version 7 and then exported to STATA 14 for data analysis. The bivariate logistic regression model was employed to identify associated factors. An adjusted odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval was used to determine factors associated with violence. Results From the total 1765 representatives of the youth population, 1597 (90.5%) youth participated in the study. Overall, the prevalence of violence among youth aged 15–24 years for the last 12 months was 21.5%. In the multivariate logistic regression model, factors significantly associated with violence were being married and divorced (AOR= 1.77, 95% CI: 1.13, 2.79) and (AOR=5.67, 95%CI: 2.93, 10.99), respectively, Living with mother’s only (AOR= 1.85, 95% CI: 1.28, 2.66) and father’s only (AOR=2.45, 95% CI: 1.30, 4.63), and substance use (AOR= 2.38, 95% CI: 1.56, 3.66).Conclusions The prevalence of violence among youth was high compared to other studies. Special emphasis should be given to reduce the burden of youth violence and preventing and controlling the identified factors by modifying the existing policies/strategies or developing new strategies and interventions program. Keywords: Violence, Youth, Physical violence, Sexual violence, Psychological violence