Domestic Violence against Nurses by their Marital Partners: A Facility-based Study at a Tertiary Care Hospital

BACKGROUND: In recent times, domestic violence against women by marital partners has emerged as an important public health problem. OBJECTIVES: 1. To determine the prevalence, characteristics and impact of domestic violence against nurses by their marital partners, in Delhi, India. 2. To identify nurses’ perceptions regarding acceptable behavior for men and women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A facility-based pilot study was conducted at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. Data were collected using self-administered standardized questionnaire, among 60 ever married female nurses working at AIIMS hospital, selected by convenience sampling. The principal outcome variables were controlling behavior, emotional, physical and sexual violence by marital partners. Data were analyzed using SPSS 12 software. The test applied was Fisher's exact test and 1-sided Fisher's exact test. RESULTS: Sixty percent of nurses reported marital partner perpetrated controlling behavior, 65% reported emotional violence, 43.3% reported physical violence and 30% reported sexual violence. About 3/5(th) of nurses (58%) opined that no reason justified violence, except wife infidelity (31.67%). Of the physically or sexually abused respondents, 40% were ever injured, and 56.7% reported that violence affected their physical and mental health. CONCLUSION: There is a high magnitude of domestic violence against nurses and this is reported to have affected their physical and mental health.