Prevalence of violence against women users of health care services

OBJECTIVE: Intimate partner abuse is a complex phenomenon and a public health problem and health care services are one of the places sought by women in this situation. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of violence against women attending a health care center. METHODS: This study was carried out in a municipality of Southeastern Brazil, in 2003. A sample of 265 women, aged 18 to 49 years old, was interviewed using a questionnaire administered face-to-face. Violence was classified as psychological, physical, sexual and general. Statistical analyses utilized were exact logistic regression and Fisher’s exact test. RESULTS: Psychological violence, at least once in life, was reported by 41.5%, physical violence by 26.4%, and 9.8% reported sexual violence. “General violence”, which refers to anyone of the above mentioned types of violence, was reported by 45.3% of the women, and, in 20.3% of the cases, they stated it had occurred during the last 12 months before the interview. However, when asked whether they had suffered any kind of violence in life, only 22.3% answered affirmatively. The multivariate analysis indicated that the risk factors for each type of violence were: drug use by the partner, socioeconomic status and family history of violence for both psychological and general violence; drug use by the partner, schooling and family history of violence for physical violence; and, socioeconomic status and family history of violence for sexual violence. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that the prevalence of violence among women attending the health care center is high and consistent with the results of other investigations. It also suggests that most of the violence is invisible to the health care center.