Male Spouse Perpetrated Psychological and Sexual Abuse among Pregnant Women in Nairobi, Kenya

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Date
2014Author
Ngugi, Elizabeth N
Mwaura, James
Nguti, David
Language
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The purpose of this comparative retrospective study was to evaluate the nature of male spouseperpetrated
gender based violence (GBV) during pregnancy. The objective was to establish whether
diagnosis of HIV infection during pregnancy mitigates or exacerbates male spouse perpetrated
psychological and sexual abuse during pregnancy. Case group comprising 96 HIV infected pregnant
women, and comparison group (96 uninfected), all in their third trimester of pregnancy were
interviewed upon consenting. A modified Conflict Tactics Scale 2 was administered to compare the
two groups in terms of psychological aggression and sexual coercion. Results indicated prevalence
and severity of male spouse perpetrated abuse to be higher for case group than comparison group
across both psychological aggression and sexual coercion subscales. The odds of male spouse
perpetrated violence was 6.64-fold higher in HIV positive pregnant women compared to HIV negative
pregnant women (OR = 6.64, 95% CI 1.56-28.27, p = 0.010). Thus, diagnosis of pregnancy and absence
of HIV infection was associated with mitigated occurrence and severity of male spouse perpetrated
abuse, while diagnosis of HIV infection during pregnancy exacerbated the same. The investigator
recommends immediate sensitization of health and social workers attending to pregnant women on
the escalative effect of HIV positive diagnosis on male-spouse perpetrated violence. Intensive couple
counseling and follow up care need to be specially designed and implemented for such couple
whether they are concordant positive or discordant.
Citation
International Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences Vol. 1(11) pp. 178-184, November, 2014Publisher
International Invention Journals
Collections
- Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) [10214]