Prevalence and factors associated with intimate partner physical violence among pregnant women in Rwanda, using secondary data from RDHS 2019-2020

Abstract

Background: Intimate partner physical violence during pregnancy is a public health concern and a breach of human rights. Physical violence has major consequences for the mother, fetus, and newborn child. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of intimate partner physical violence towards pregnant women and associated factors in Rwanda

Methodology This cross-sectional study used secondary data from the Rwanda Demographic Health Survey 2019-2020. A total of 1,849 women aged 15-49 years were included in this study. Descriptive analysis was used to determine the prevalence and a multivariate logistic regression model using manual backward stepwise regression was used to identify the factors associated with Intimate partner physical violence toward pregnant women. Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR)s and 95% CI were used to report the magnitude of the association between socio-demographic characteristics, reproductive characteristics, history of IPPV, and related characteristics with IPPV among pregnant women. Stata 16 was used for analysis and survey commands were applied to all analyses.

Results The prevalence of intimate partner physical violence towards pregnant women in Rwanda was 4.5% and the associated factors include the partner’s alcohol drinking habits; drinks sometimes drunk (AOR 3.68, 95% CI (1.3-10.1), drinks often drunk (AOR 14.67 95% CI (5.2-41.4), living children 3-5 (AOR 2.64 95% CI (1.2-5.6), and polygamous couple (AOR 2.81 95% CI (1.2-6.4).

Conclusion Intimate partner physical violence toward pregnant women is still high in Rwanda. Having a male partner that drinks alcohol and gets drunk, polygamy, and 3-5 children were associated with intimate partner physical violence during pregnancy. We recommend that the government of Rwanda should address the issue of substance abuse, refine social norms and attitudes that promote gender inequalities through several stereotypes in families, empower women, and encourage them to use contraceptives so that to give birth to children they can afford to take care of without added pressure and stress.