Background: Violence against women is one of the worst consequences of cultural, political, and
socio-economic inequalities between men and women. Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) has been identified as an
important cause of morbidity from multiple mental, physical, sexual, and reproductive health outcomes.
Nonetheless, the prevalence and related factors of this international problem have not been investigated
extensively in some parts of the world.
The aims of this research were to determine the prevalence of physical and mental violence perpetrated by men
against their intimate partners and to assess the associated factors of partner violence among women in Shahroud
in northeastern region of Iran in 2010.
Methods: This Cross-Sectional study was conducted in Shahroud, in northeast of Iran in 2010. Cluster sampling
was done from primary health service institutions, universities, public schools and governmental organizations
throughout the city and six hundred married women completed the study. A structured questionnaire with 34
items was designed in three parts to assess the physically (10 items) and mentally (15 items) violent acts by a
current intimate male partner and identify collative behaviors (9 items) of victims. The Logistic regression
analysis was applied to determine the net effect of background variables on the IPV occurrence within the past
year.
Results: About 20% of the participants experienced at least one type of physical violence. Increased risk of
physical violence was positively associated with the younger age of the couple (OR=3.08, P< 0.05), lower
education (OR=2.28, P<0.01) and having a semi-manual skilled occupation of husband (OR=3.62, P<0.05),
husband’s heavy cigarette smoking (OR=2.62, P<0.01), and his drug abuse (OR=2.1, P<0.05). About 85% of the
women had experienced mental harassment within the past twelve months. Logistic Regression Analysis found
that lower education (OR=3.06, P<0.01) and having semi-manual skilled occupation (OR=3.8, P<0.05) of
husband, increasing years of marriage (OR=2.8, P<0.01), husband’s heavy cigarette smoking (OR=2.3, P<0.01)
and his abusing the use of drugs (OR=3.4, P<0.01) had significant associations with women’s experience of
mental violence.
Conclusions: Some socioeconomic characteristics such as educational level, occupational status of men, heavy
smoking and drug abusing are associated with the occurrence of violence against one’s intimate partner. SinceIPV is usually unreported, healthcare providers should be aware of the risk factors associated with domestic violence to be able to design preventive measures against its negative health outcomes in women.