EXPERIENCE OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN IN RURAL AND URBAN AREAS OF NIGER DELTA REGION OF NIGERIA: RISK...

Risk factors and coping strategies employed for domestic violence across rural and urban locales remains a topical public health concern. Geographic locations experiencing other forms of violence may contribute additional risk factors to domestic violence.

A cross-sectional study design was used to determine and compare the risk factors, help-resources and coping strategies employed by survivors of domestic violence living in rural and urban areas of the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria. Altogether 461 (225 rural, 236 urban) pregnant women participated. Statistical analysis was carried out with SPSS version 21 with p ≤0.05.

Predictors of violence identified were: geographical location, residing in a rural area (OR 2.052 95% C.I. 1.349 - 3.122) and alcohol intake by pregnant women (OR 1.691; 95% C.I. 1.022 - 2.798) increased the risk of domestic violence while intimate partner's occupation, being a professional was a protective factor (OR 0.513 95% C.I. 0.327 - 0.806). Less than half of the respondents in both locations (rural 44.0% versus urban 35.2%) sought for help following incidents of violence. Fewer rural (3.1%) than urban (10.7%) of them sought for formal help from the police. The main coping strategy used was 'keeping silent' by 69.4% rural compared to 46.4% urban survivors and the main reason given, was to avoid family disharmony.

There is urgent need for relevant stakeholders to institute measures to reduce domestic violence especially in rural areas of developing countries and establish well-linked help resource centres across both rural and urban localities.