Determinants of physical violence among rural women aged 15-49 years in Uganda
Abstract
Physical violence is any act of gender-based assault that results physical and psychological
harm or suffering to a person. Most cases of Physical violence on women as victims and the
perpetrators being their male spouses. Physical violence is the commonly experienced form
of violence against women around the globe. African women are more likely to face lifetime
Physical violence (45.6%) and sexual assault. The study identified the socio-economic
determinants of physical violence suffered by rural women between 15-49 years of age.
The study used secondary data from the UDHS report (2021). Sample of 5259 rural women
and those living with their partners were interviewed. These belonged to age groups of 15-49
years. Data of the respondents was analyzed using Stata15. Frequency distributions and
Pearson’s Chi-square tests were used for descriptive data analysis. The level of significance
between dependent and independent variables was set at P≤0.05.
The study results showed that 59% of the married women involved in the study experienced
physical violence. Physical violence was significantly associated with age, education level,
religion, marital status and wealth index of the respondents. Further, findings revealed that
Physical Violence was higher among women aged 20-34 (60%), married women (59%), with
no and primary education attainment (86%), respondents among Catholic and Anglican
religious sects had the highest cases (79%)those in the lower wealth index (30%)and
respondents in rural areas experienced most cases of PV (84%).
From the findings, conclusions were drawn that physical violence was greatly associated with
wealth index, level of education of the women, and the age of the woman as compared to
other social factor such as religion, number of children born and years spent with partner.
The study recommended that, there should be collaboration between the government and
other stakeholders to set and communicate evidence-base norms, standards, policies,
technical strategies and guidelines to prevent perpetrators from victimizing women. In
addition, perpetrators should be identified and be accorded to a clear sentence in the courts of
law has to end physical violence. Women also have a right to exercise their freedom in their
marriages. The study also recommended that records concerning physical violence should be
kept in order to aid the authorities in monitoring and assessing the changes through which the
victims undergo.