Intimate partner violence: a cross-sectional study in women treated in the Brazilian Public Health System

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence and types of violence suffered by women and to identify the gender attitudes related to the situation. METHODS: This was a descritive, cross-sectional study incluiding 343 women who were assisted at the Brazilian Public Health System in countryside city in northeastern of Brazil. All participants were volunteers and they invited to participate during consultation at a Basic Health Unit. As participants, they filled out the World Health Organization Violence Against Women Questionnaire and responded to a sociodemographic questionnaire. RESULTS: The victims were, on average, 20.3 years old, and 53.2% of them were married. There was a prevalence of 52.9% of psychological violence, 30.5% of physical violence, and 12.3% of sexual violence. Participants reported alcoholism (67%) and jealousy (60.8%) as triggers to violence. The main psychological abuses were insults and humiliation. In terms of physical violence, the major ones were pushes and slaps. The sexual violence most reportedwere sexual intercourse against the will of the woman and sexual intercourse because of fear of the partner. A portion of the participants justified violence due to women’s infidelity, refusal to have sex, and disobedience to her husband. CONCLUSION: Education in gender equality as a measure of opposition to the culture of female subjugation can reflect on the resignification of the violence suffered by them, and not on blaming the victim of violence by an intimate partner.