Intimate Partner Violence during Pregnancy in Egypt: Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Adverse Health Outcomes

Andrzej Kulczycki, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Accurate information on the prevalence of domestic violence is difficult to obtain, especially for the Middle East. We use the 2005 Egyptian Demographic and Health Survey to assess the prevalence of spousal physical violence during pregnancy, the correlates of such violence, and associated adverse reproductive health outcomes. Findings are based on a sample of ever-pregnant women of childbearing age who were physically abused in pregnancy by their husbands. 5.2% of ever-pregnant women (n=264) reported such violence. Multivariate logistic regression analyses, adjusted for background individual-level and relationship characteristics, show that being urban, divorced or separated, engaged in cash work, and justifying wife-beating, significantly increased the odds of experiencing physically abuse during pregnancy; being in the two highest wealth quintiles reduced them. Women more accepting of wife-beating were 1.6 times more likely to experience STIs/STI symptoms, and abused pregnant victims were 2.4 times more likely to do so, relative to non-victims.