General Violence Against Women by an Intimate Partner and Co-Occurrence

This study aims to estimate the general prevalence of violence against women and its associated factors, including co-occurrence in the municipality of Vitória, Espírito Santo.

This population-based cross-sectional study was carried out in the municipality of Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil, with 1086 women who were interviewed in their homes. Data were analyzed in Stata 15.1. The chi-squared test of heterogeneity was used for the bivariate analysis. Poisson's regression with robust variance estimation was used to calculate crude and adjusted prevalence ratios and their respective 95% confidence intervals.

Overall violence throughout life represented a total of 47.8%, 13.0% of which co-occurred with psychological, physical, and sexual violence. Eleven percent of the participants reported psychological and physical violence episodes. Women between 40 and 49 years old had a 31% higher prevalence of intimate partner violence in their lifetime than older women. Catholics had a 33% lower prevalence of violence than non-Catholics. Those who lived without a partner endured a 1.4 times greater occurrence of violence. Women with up to 8 years of schooling and belonging to the second socioeconomic tertile had higher frequencies of violence. Regarding family experiences of violence, women whose mothers had been attacked by their partners had a 32% higher prevalence of overall violence in their lives (p < 0.05).

This study associated victims' polyvictimization and some of their main behavioral and family characteristics that can increase their chances of suffering violence. It is also important that future national and international studies evaluate the co-occurrence of violence experienced by women.