A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Young Men’s Gambling and Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration in Mwanza, Tanzania

Objectives: The prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Tanzania is one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. There are very few studies on the co-occurrence of gambling and IPV and none from LMICs, despite gambling being a behaviour associated with gender norms exalting masculinity underlying IPV perpetration. Methods: Cross-sectional survey data of 755 currently partnered men aged 18–24 from Mwanza, Tanzania were analysed to investigate whether gambling was associated with past-year physical, sexual, emotional and economic IPV. We conducted bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions to control for potential confounders, based on their significant association bivariately with the main outcome variables. Results: Of the men who gambled, 18 percent perpetrated physical IPV, 39 percent sexual IPV, 60 percent emotional IPV and 39 percent economic IPV. Gambling was significantly associated with sexual (aOR: 2.59; 95% CI: 1.70–3.97), emotional (aOR: 1.55; 95% CI: 1.12–2.14) and economic IPV (aOR: 1.38; 95% CI: 1.02–1.88) after controlling for confounders. Conclusion: The analysis shows that gambling is associated with IPV perpetration. More research is needed to understand how current IPV prevention efforts can be expanded to include problem gambling treatment.