The spatial distribution of intimate partner violence prevalence and its associated factors among women aged 15-49 years in Zambia: evidence from the 2018 Demographic and Health Survey

• Published in: BMC public health 2024-12, Vol.24 (1), p.3443-9, Article 3443
• Main Authors: Musaka, Beverley, Musekiwa, Alfred
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abused women; Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; Adolescent; Adult; Aggression; AIDS; Alcohol; Analysis; Bivariate analysis; Data analysis; Demographics; Demography; Distribution; Domestic violence; Drinking behavior; Family violence; Fathers; Female; Gender-based violence; Health aspects; Health Surveys; HIV; Households; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Intimate partner violence; Intimate Partner Violence - statistics & numerical data; Middle Aged; Parents & parenting; Polls & surveys; Prevalence; Prevalence studies (Epidemiology); Prevention; Public health; Questionnaires; Regression analysis; Regression models; Risk Factors; Sample size; Sex crimes; Social aspects; Spatial Analysis; Spatial distribution; Statistics; Surveys; Violence; Women; Womens health; Young Adult; Zambia; Zambia - epidemiology
• ISSN: 1471-2458; 1471-2458
• DOI: 10.1186/s12889-024-20964-1

Intimate partner violence (IPV) includes any physical, sexual, or emotional harm experienced in any intimate relationship that results in negative outcomes. Zambia is one of the countries with the highest prevalence of IPV amongst women in sub-Saharan Africa. This study aims to investigate and describe the prevalence, associated risk factors, and geo-spatial distribution of IPV amongst women aged 15-49 years from the 2018 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS). This study is a secondary data analysis of the 2018 ZDHS, which used the women's individual dataset to extract a representative sample of 9 503 women from the domestic violence module. Analyses were adjusted using survey weights to account for unequal sampling probabilities. The bivariate and multivariable logistic regression models were applied to determine the factors associated with IPV. Stata MP version 14 was used to perform all analyses and QGIS software was used to map the geospatial distribution of IPV across provinces. The overall IPV prevalence amongst women aged 15-49 years in this study was 36.5% (95%CI: 34.9 to 38.2), with Muchinga province having the highest prevalence at 55.2% (95% CI 50.4 to 59.8) and North western with the lowest prevalence at 22.6% (95% CI 19.9 to 25.6). In the adjusted analyses, women who justified wife beating were at a higher odds of experiencing IPV compared to those who did not (aOR = 1.75; 95% CI: 1.37 to 2.25; p