Detection of indices of violence against women by health professionals in a Nigerian teaching hospital

Abstract

Context: Violence against women (VAW) is the most common form of violence existing in the human race and is a major reproductive health issue of our time because of its many negative reproductive health consequences. Health care providers have important roles to play in increasing the capacity of their employees to meet the challenges of diagnosing, managing and preventing this societal problem. This can be started by assessing their training needs. Objective: To determine the extent to which health professionals can recognize some indices that may suggest VAW. Design, Setting and Subjects: This is a descriptive study. Using a structured questionnaire, a survey was performed among randomly selected doctors, nurses and social workers in OAUTHC, Ile-Ife, in Osun State, Nigeria. Information on their sociodemographic characters were obtained and they were also asked to identify the degree of association between a set of signs and symptoms in relation to violence against women. Results: Divorce/separation during pregnancy, alcohol and drug abuse in women, and attempted suicide (with scores of 85.8% and 79.9%) were the indices identified that would mostly prompt suspicion of VAW. About 31.1% of the respondents may not appropriately detect VAW. There is no significant difference in the ability of health professionals to detect VAW with regard to sex, years of experience, and the professional group. Conclusion: Health Professionals in OAUTHC will benefit from training and retraining programme on how to detect VAW. Similar baseline surveys are recommended for other health institutions as the first step in meeting this great challenge of the 21st century.