Association between intimate partner violence & HIV/AIDS: Exploring the pathways in Indian context

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Violence against women cutting across diverse socio-economic classes is an under-recognized human rights violation in the world. This analysis was undertaken to examine the prevalence along with predictors of intimate partner violence (IPV) and its association with HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Indian ever-married women. METHODS: The data obtained from 2005 to 2006 third round of National Family Health Survey-3 (NFHS-3) were used in this study. Analyses were conducted on ever-married women by linking individual women data including violence information and HIV test results. RESULTS: The analyses indicated all forms of violence to be prevalent in India. The prevalence of lifetime IPV reported was 35.3 per cent. Multivariate analysis using logistic regression identified younger age of women, higher number of children, low level of education of women as well as her partner, working status of women, higher spousal age, rural residence, alcohol consumption by husband, childhood witness of violence among parents, nuclear household and lower standard of living to be positively associated with the experience of IPV by the women (P<0.05). HIV-positive status of women, as well as women from high HIV prevalent State, were at increased odds of IPV (P<0.05). INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: Significantly higher reporting of HIV/STIs by women experiencing IPV hints at new pathways that link violence and HIV. Further, our analysis showed a high prevalence of IPV in India.