Sex disparities in attitudes towards intimate partner violence against women in sub-Saharan Africa: a socio-ecological analysis
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Date
2010
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BMC Public Health
Abstract
Attitudes towards intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) has been suggested as one of the
prominent predictor of IPVAW. In this study, we take a step back from individual-level variables and examine
relationship between societal-level measures and sex differences in attitudes towards IPVAW.
Methods: We used meta-analytic procedure to synthesize the results of most recent data sets available from
Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) of 17 countries in sub-Saharan Africa conducted between 2003 and 2007.
Pooled odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were computed for all countries. Test of heterogeneity,
sensitivity analysis, and meta-regression were also carried out.
Results: Women were twice as likely to justify wife beating than men (pooled OR = 1.97; 95% CI 1.53- 2.53) with
statistically significant heterogeneity. The magnitude in sex disparities in attitudes towards IPVAW increased with
increasing percentage of men practicing polygamy in each country. Furthermore, magnitude in sex disparities in
attitudes towards IPVAW decreased monotonically with increasing adult male and female literacy rate, gender
development index, gross domestic product and human development index.
Conclusion: This meta-analysis has provided evidence that women were more likely to justify IPVAW than men in subSaharan Africa. Our results revealed that country's socio-economic factors may be associated with sex differential in
attitudes towards IPVAW.
Description
Keywords
Research article, Sex disparities, Partner violence, Women, Sub-Saharan Africa
Citation
: Uthman et al., Sex disparities in attitudes towards intimate partner violence against women in sub-Saharan Africa: a socio-ecological analysis. BMC Public Health 2010, 10:223. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-10-223