Prevalence of domestic violence in women referred to the heath care centers in Semnan (2003)

Introduction: Domestic violence is the most common form of violence against women that has negative effects on other health priority such as mother’s heath, family planning, prevention of disease and mental health. This research has been done to determine prevalence of various kinds of domestic violence in women referred to the health care centers in Semnan. Materials & Methods: This study is a descriptive and cross- sectional research. Sample were 600 women and data were collected trough a self - reporting questioner. Reliability of questioner was detected by test- re-test. Data were analyzed by spss and also mean, standard deviation, absolute & relative frequency were detected. For this study chi–square, kendall’s Tau-c, pearson and spearman correlation coefficient were used. Results: The physical violence was experienced with higher percent (18.6%) in women of Semnan & Shahmirzad, emotional violence with 63.7%, verbal violence with 43.3% in women of Semnan & economic abuse with 72% were observed in women of Sorkhe. The most injuries from physical abuse were bruising of head and face. After violence, 15.8% of samples was describe that they referred to neurologist. In related to decided after violence, 3.3% of samples were used leave of absence without pay. A Significant and opposite relationship was observed between physical abuse with educational level of women (P=0.000), her husbands education (P=0.037) and age of marriage (P=0.000). A Significant and opposite relationship was observed between economic abuse with educational level of women (P=0.003), her husbands education (P=0.000) and age of marriage (P=0.003). Conclusion: Low educational level and unemployment can resulted to higher physical, verbal and economic abuse. Many factor such as far away from family, social isolation and lack of relationship with family and friends and therefore lower usage of support can be some risk factores for domestic violence. Increased range of physical and economic abuse in women who married in lower age can be resulted from partner’s inexperience and lack of knowledge about partner’s right. Also higher prevalence of economic abuse in women who have 7 children and up can be resulted from economic distress of family. Control of poverty and unemployment, teaching to young people about partner’s right, especially women’s right previous of marriage can decrease domestic violence