DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-148406/v1
Background: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world. It is fuelled by gender inequality and disparity, which has resulted in a fundamental violation of women’s human rights. This study tries to find the association of intimate partner violence and other risk factors with the occurrence of HIV infection among married women in India.
Data and Methods: This study is based on nationally representative data from the Indian National Family Health Survey (2015–16). Bivariate analysis and Multivariate analysis has been performed to determine the prevalence of HIV and Intimate Partner Violence. Logistic regression analysis is performed to find out the association of lifetime intimate partner violence and other factors with HIV infection among currently married women.
Results: Married women who had faced physical, sexual, and emotional violence from their husbands/partners were almost twice more likely to have tested HIV positive compared to married women who did not suffer from violence [OR: 1.90, CI: 1.91-1.97]. The likelihood of testing for HIV positive was significantly higher among the married women whose husbands drink alcohol [OR: 2.49, CI: 1.69-3.66]. Interestingly, the use of condoms did not show any significant association with positive HIV status. Again, having more than one partner had a significant positive association with testing positive for HIV among married women [OR: 2.40, CI: 1.30-4.42].
Conclusion: The findings of the study have shown that factors such as violence, having an alcoholic husband, increased number of lifetime sexual partners, having no financial autonomy, being sexually inactive for weeks, belonging to vulnerable social groups, and urban place of residence are important risk factors of HIV infection among married women in India.
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