Prevalence of IPV
Almost an equal number of women experienced both physical and emotional forms of IPV (41% and 40% respectively), sexual IPV was least common (23%) and overall, majority (56%) of the women experienced any IPV.
Descriptive characteristics of respondents
Table 1 presents the background characteristics of respondents. More than half (76%) of the women resided in rural areas, had primary level education (60%), were economically empowered (86%), and their partners had majorly primary education (53%). Fifty percent of women reported an age difference of 0-5 years with their partners. There was nearly an even distribution of women by region, although Northern contributed the least number (20%) and Central region the highest (28%).
In Table 2, other IPV related factors are presented. The majority of women experienced partner controlling behaviors (71%), married after 18 years (52%), never had co-wives (74%) and their partners never drank alcohol (57%). About 2 in 5 women witnessed parental violence (36%).
Association between IPV and explanatory variables
Table 3 presents cross tabulations for associations between the different explanatory variables and experience of the different IPV forms. Factors such as age, residence, woman’s education, partner’s education, region, wealth status, partners’ alcohol consumption, frequency of partner being drunk, event of witnessing parental violence, duration of union, number of co-wives, parity and presence of partner controlling behaviors were significantly associated with emotional, sexual, physical and any IPV. However, partner age difference was not associated with any of the forms of IPV. Economic empowerment status was only related to emotional and physical IPV while age at first marriage only showed a relationship with emotional, physical and any IPV.
Remarkably and across all models, more women age 35+ years, residing in rural areas, married before 18 years, belonging to poorest wealth quintiles and those who witnessed parental violence experienced all forms of IPV. There was an almost even distribution of IPV by region. Women whose partners had controlling behaviors, consumed alcohol and had more than one wife experienced more IPV while those whose partners had secondary+ education had the least prevalence of IPV.
Multivariate Results
In Table 4, the net influence of explanatory variables on occurrence of emotional, sexual, physical and any IPV is presented. For all the modals, the variables that were not significant at the bivariate level of analysis were excluded.
Age had a significant relationship with all the forms of IPV. Women age 25-34 had reduced odds of experiencing emotional IPV (OR=0.79; 95% CI: 0.64-0.98), sexual IPV (OR=0.78; 95% CI: 0.61-0.99), physical IPV (OR=0.76; 95% CI: 0.60-0.96) and any IPV (OR=0.75; 95% CI: 0.60-0.95) compared to their colleagues age 15-24.
Education of the woman was only associated with sexual IPV as women with primary education had increased odds (OR=1.37; 95% CI: 1.07-1.76) of experiencing sexual violence compared to their counterparts with no education.
Region influenced all the forms of IPV. Particularly, the odds of experiencing emotional IPV were higher among women in Northern (OR=1.31; 95% CI: 1.01-1.70) and Western Uganda (OR=2.17; 95% CI: 1.75-2.70). Sexual IPV was however more likely to be found in the Eastern (OR=1.53; 95% CI: 1.16-2.01) and Western regions (OR=1.51; 95% CI: 1.18-1.93) of Uganda than the Central region. Like emotional IPV, physical IPV was more likely to be found in the Northern (OR=1.31; 95% CI: 1.02-1.69) and Western (OR=1.28; 95% CI: 1.02-1.62) regions of Uganda. Overall, the odds of experiencing any IPV were higher among women in Northern (OR=1.28; 95% CI: 1.01-1.62) and Western (OR=1.69; 95% CI: 1.37-2.08) Uganda compared to those in Central Uganda.
Wealth status was strongly associated with physical IPV and any IPV. Specifically, women in the poorer, middle, richer and richest wealth quintiles all had decreased odds (OR=0.79; 95% CI: 0.63-1.00, OR=0.71; 95% CI: 0.56-0.91, OR=0.67; 95% CI: 0.51-0.89 and OR=0.53; 95% CI: 0.39-0.72 respectively) of experiencing physical IPV. Furthermore, women in Western Uganda were less likely (OR=1.37; 95% CI: 1.07-1.76) to experience any IPV compared to their colleagues in Central Uganda.
The frequency of a husband/partner being drunk had influence on all forms of IPV. Essentially, women whose partners were “often” drunk had more odds of experiencing emotional violence (OR=3.61; 95% CI: 2.48-5.25), sexual violence (OR=2.16; 95% CI: 1.43-3.25), physical violence (OR=3.36; 95% CI: 2.48-5.31) and any IPV (OR=4.19; 95% CI: 2.87-6.12) compared to those whose partners never used to drink. Similarly, women whose partners “sometimes” got drunk were also more likely to experience emotional IPV (OR=1.91; 95% CI: 1.34-2.73), physical IPV (OR=1.59; 95% CI: 1.13-2.24) and any IPV (OR=2.51; 95% CI: 1.79-3.54).
Partner controlling behaviors were strongly associated with all forms of IPV. Women whose partners had controlling behaviors had increased odds of experiencing emotional IPV (OR=5.24; 95% CI: 4.56-6.46), sexual IPV (OR=4.19; 95% CI: 3.36-5.22), physical IPV (OR=3.36; 95% CI: 3.06-4.37) and any form of IPV (OR=5.20; 95% CI: 4.46-6.07).
Further, witnessing parental violence equally influenced IPV. All women who witnessed parental violence had more odds of experiencing emotional IPV (OR=1.74; 95% CI: 1.48-2.05), sexual IPV (OR=1.75; 95% CI: 1.49-2.06), physical IPV (OR=1.66; 95% CI: 1.42-1.94 and any IPV (OR=1.90; 95% CI: 1.62-2.23) compared to their colleagues who did not.
Duration of union had a significant association with all forms of IPV. The odds of experiencing emotional IPV were higher among women with 5-9 years’ marital duration (OR=1.75; 95% CI: 1.41-2.18), 10-14 years’ duration (OR=2.11; 95% CI: 1.60-2.78), 15-19 years’ duration (OR=1.84; 95% CI: 1.32-2.58) and 20+ years’ duration (OR=1.97; 95% CI: 1.28-3.03). For sexual IPV, the odds were also higher for women with 5-9 years’ duration (OR=1.66; 95% CI: 1.28-2.14), 10-14 years’ duration (OR=1.87; 95% CI: 1.32-2.64), 15-19 years’ duration (OR=1.92; 95% CI: 1.27-2.91) and 20+ years’ duration (OR=1.73; 95% CI: 1.05-2.85). The odds of experiencing physical IPV were higher for women with 5-9 years’ duration (OR=1.85; 95% CI: 1.49-2.30), 10-14 years’ duration (OR=2.12; 95% CI: 1.60-2.82), 15-19 years’ duration (OR=1.97; 95% CI: 1.39-2.79) and 20+ years’ duration (OR=2.60; 95% CI: 1.70-3.97). Like other models, the odds of experiencing any IPV were also higher for women with 5-9 years’ duration (OR=1.85; 95% CI: 1.50-2.29), 10-14 years’ duration (OR=2.52; 95% CI: 1.91-3.34), 15-19 years’ duration (OR=2.24; 95% CI: 1.56-3.22) and 20+ years’ duration (OR=2.76; 95% CI: 1.75-4.35).
Age at first marriage only influenced sexual IPV. Women who married after 18 years were more likely (OR=1.40; 95% CI: 1.16-1.69) to experience sexual violence compared to their colleagues who married before the age of 18 years.
Another correlate of IPV was economic empowerment, which showed a significant association with sexual IPV. Women who were empowered had decreased odds (OR=0.77; 95% CI: 0.60-0.99) of experiencing sexual IPV compared to counterparts who were not empowered.
Parity was the other predictor of IPV. Women with parity of 1-4 children had increased odds of experiencing emotional IPV (OR=1.54; 95% CI: 1.09-2.18), physical IPV (OR=2.22; 95% CI: 1.59-3.08) and any IPV (OR=1.76; 95% CI: 1.27-2.44). Similarly, women with 5 and more children were also more likely to experience emotional violence (OR=1.61; 95% CI: 1.07-2.43), physical violence (OR=2.28; 95% CI: 1.56-3.33) and the generalised form of violence (OR=1.97; 95% CI: 1.35-2.89).