Intimate partner violence during pregnancy in Urmia, Iran in 2012

In spite of enough prevalence data on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) during pregnancy
from many countries, there are still some regions such as the Middle East with relatively limited data.
The purpose of research was to investigate the magnitude of IPV during pregnancy in an Iranian community.
Methods: Thirty hundred fifty women during their postpartum period were invited to participate
in a cross-sectional population-based study, but 10.6% of them refused participation. The data was
compiled using the Abuse Assessment Screen questionnaire. Results: Of the 313 women, 55.9% reported
violence during pregnancy. All types of violence were detected in victims during pregnancy, including
psychological violence (43.5%), physical violence (10.2%), and sexual violence (17.2%). Intimate partner
violence during pregnancy was significantly associated with lower education of the husbands (PR 1.64;
95% CI 1.15e2.36), un-employment of the husbands (PR 1.36; 95% CI 1.12e1.64), marriage duration of 5e9
years (PR 0.95; 95% CI 0.74e1.20) and gravidity of two (PR 0.80; 95% CI 0.59e1.08). Conclusion: The
reported prevalence of IPV before and during pregnancy in this sample is substantially higher than estimates
of exposure to violence in other parts of the globe, even the East Mediterranean region which has
the highest prevalence estimation in the globe