Prevalence of domestic violence against pregnant women and its related factors in women referred to health centers in 2010 Ahvaz, Iran

Background:

One of domestic violences is wives injury which is a health and psychological chalange. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of domestic violence and related factors in pregnancy.

Material and methods:

This descriptive analytic study evaluated 300 women who attended six health centers in Ahvaz in the last month of pregnancy or had labored during past 6 months. Abuse Assessment Screen (AAS) standard questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed by spss version 15; compeuterized progrom chi square test and regression of logistic were used for data analysis.

Results:

The mean age of participants were 26.4 5.6 years. The prevalence of any kind of violence before pregnancy was 44.7%. While the rate decreased to 19.3% duting pregnancy. Prevalence of physical, psychological and sexual miolene impregnavcy were 2.7%, 14%, and 9.3% respectively.

Conclusion:

The results showed that the prevalence of domestic violence during pregnancy decreased comparing to before pregnancy. Despite the reduction of the prevalence of domestic violence in pregnancy, we recommend routine screening of violence in pregnant women in health centers.