The European Journal of Public Health Advance Access published online on January 8, 2009
The European Journal of Public Health, doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckn136
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Intimate partner violence against women, health effects and health care seeking in rural Vietnam
Nguyen Dang Vung1,2, Per-Olof Ostergren3 and Gunilla Krantz2,4
1 Department of Demography, Faculty of Public Health, Hanoi Medical University, Hanoi, Vietnam.
2 Division of International Health, Ihcar, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
3 Division of Social Medicine and Global Health, Department of Clinical Sciences in Malmo, Lund University, Sweden.
4 Department of Community Medicine and Public Health, The Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden.
Correspondence: Nguyen Dang Vung, Department of Demography, Faculty of Public Health, Hanoi Medical University, Hanoi, Vietnam. No. 1 Ton That Tung, Dong Da, Ha Noi, Vietnam. Tel: +84 947484988, fax: +84-438463056, e-mail: ndvung755{at}yahoo.com
Received July 7, 2008 , accepted December 15, 2008
Background: Health effects and health care seeking were investigated among women in rural Vietnam exposed to physical and/or sexual violence from their partner in the past year. The study was conducted within the framework of the demographic surveillance site in Bavi District, Ha Tay Province in northern Vietnam. Methods: Face-to-face interviews based on a questionnaire developed by the WHO for use in violence research were conducted with 883 randomly selected women. Past-year violence and health effects were investigated in bi and multivariate analyses. Results: The prevalence of past-year physical and/or sexual violence was 9.2% (n = 81). Women exposed to violence ran a considerably elevated risk of memory loss (OR 3.7; 1.8–7.5), pain or discomfort (OR 3.8; 2.3–6.3), sadness or depression (OR 4.5; 2.7–7.5) and having suicidal thoughts (OR 2.8; 1.04–7.3) compared with those with no violence experience in the past year, when adjusted for socio-demographic factors. Almost 50% (n = 40) of the women exposed to violence reported injuries and, of those, 58% had to seek health care. Conclusions: Physical and/or sexual violence are common occurrences in Vietnam, associated with pain, injuries and mental health problems in exposed women. These results point to the need for a reliable health surveillance system, along with health care and support activities for victimised women, and policy initiatives to prevent this violence.
Keywords: common illnesses, domestic violence, health effects, intimate partner violence, Vietnam