Assessing the prevalence and association between physical, emotional, and sexual of intimate partner violence against women in Nigeria

BACKGROUND: Several studies were carried out on prevalence and associated factors of physical, emotional, and sexual violence against women. However, little attention was given to a comprehensive study that assesses the association between physical, emotional, and sexual violence against women. Thus, this study aimed to assess the association between physical, emotional, and sexual violence against women and their prevalence. METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional design was implemented based on the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey involving 8061 married women aged 15–49. A log-linear statistical model for the three-way table was used to assess the association between emotional, physical, and sexual violence. SAS statistical software was used for data management and parameter estimation. RESULTS: Among a total of 8061 women considered in the study 3022 (37.49%), 4216 (52.3%) and 1186 (14.71%) women have experienced physical, emotional, and sexual violence, respectively. The estimated odds of the interaction between emotional and physical violence (e(1.9281) = 6.876); physical and sexual violence (e(−2.0529) = 0.128) were significantly differ from 1.0 with p-values < 0:0001 and 0.0201, respectively. CONCLUSION: Over 33 percent of women experienced at least one incident of physical, emotional, or sexual violence in their lifetime. Physical violence against women has a significant association with emotional and sexual violence. However, it does not imply physical violence causes the other violence since cross-sectional data used for the analysis and other factors were not taken into consideration. The lack of a three-way association between emotional, physical, and sexual violence was also perceived. Therefore, as the prevalence of intimate partner violence against women s high, Nigeria as a country needs to strive to reduce it with the collaboration of other nations in the world to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). Design and apply guidelines to aware of the community about intimate partner violence against women and besides, take appropriate sentencing on those who commit the violence are the better approaches to prevent violence. Traditional habits that might be the cause of violence should be avoided to reduce or prevent the burden of women due to violence.