The knowledge and attitudes towards domestic violence among pregnant women in Delhi, India

Abstract

Background: Domestic violence during pregnancy endangers the health of the mother and her child. Aim and Objective: To ascertain the knowledge and attitudes towards domestic violence among pregnant women in India and to find out their sociodemographic predictors. Settings and design: This cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from a prospective study was conducted at the antenatal care (ANC) clinic of a major tertiary care government hospital in New Delhi from 2015-2018. Methods and material: The data were collected through face-to-face interviews with 1500 pregnant women up to 20 weeks of gestation. A p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The mean (SD) age of the participants was 24.6 (3.6) years. All the participants were married. A total of 1169 (77.9%) participants were aware of domestic violence. The participant comprehension of the types of domestic violence was highest for physical (89.9%), emotional (68.4%), economical (21.5%), and sexual (17.4%) violence. On adjusted analysis, education ≥10 years and higher SES were associated with a comprehensive awareness of domestic violence. Conclusions: The awareness of domestic violence, especially beyond physical violence, is low among pregnant women in India.