Abstract
Background
Violence against women is an important public health issue that has high magnitude and an impact on health.
Objective
To verify the association between intimate partner violence throughout life and women’s socioeconomic and reproductive characteristics.
Method
Cross-sectional study carried out in 26 health units in the municipality of Vitória, state of Espírito Santo, Brazil, in 2014. Sample composed of 991 women, aged 20-59 years, having an intimate partner in the 12 months prior to the interview. Data on socioeconomic and reproductive characteristics and the three types of violence against women (psychological, sexual, or physical) were collected. The chi-squared test at a 5% significance level was used to analyze the data, and the Poisson regression was applied to obtain the crude and adjusted prevalence ratios for the confounding factors.
Results
The adjusted final model showed that physical, psychological and sexual violence was associated with education level, marital status, partner’s refusal to use a condom during sexual intercourse, number of sexual partners in the past year, and number of children (p<0.05). The first forced sexual intercourse remained associated with sexual violence and age at first sexual intercourse was associated with physical and psychological violence.
Conclusion
Prevalence of violence against women is associated with socioeconomic and reproductive factors.
Keywords:
violence; violence against women; spouse abuse; domestic violence; intimate partner violence