Factors associated with physical violence among married women in Uganda.

Abstract

Physical violence is any act of gender-based assault that results in, or is likely to result in, physical and psychological harm or suffering to a person. Most cases of Physical violence are on women as victims and the perpetrators being their male spouses. PV is the commonly experienced form of violence against women around the globe (UN 2015). African women are more likely to face lifetime PV (45.6%) and sexual assault. It mostly affects rural married women. The study used secondary data from the UDHS dataset. A sample of 5642 married 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 Stata 14. 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 59.2% of the married women experienced physical violence. Physical violence was significantly associated with age, education level, religion, place of residence marital status and wealth index of the respondents. Physical Violence was higher among women aged 20-34 (59.9%), married women (59.2%), with no and primary education attainment (85.9%), respondents among Catholic and Anglican religious sects had the highest cases (78.9%) those in the lower wealth index (30%) and respondents in rural areas experienced most cases of PV (83.7%) As a recommendation, there should be collaboration between the government and other stake holders to set and communicate evidence-base norms, standards, policies, technical strategies and guidelines to stop perpetrators from victimizing married 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