Regresar

Violence against women. Analysis at the Instituto Materno Infantil in Bogotá, Colombia, 2005. A cross-sectional study

Abstract:

Introduction: violence against women happens in all countries and in every social, cultural, economic and religious group. Violence occurring between couples in Colombia, mainly affecting women, has been on the increase; however, due to most cases not leading to an official complaint being made, the statistics do not reflect the problem's real magnitude. Objectives: estimating the prevalence of violence between couples mainly affecting women at the "Instituto Materno InEantil" of Bogotá (IMI), as well as examining the factors related to this problem. Method: this was a cross-sectional study involving 215 women surveyed from February 1st to August 31st 2005. Inclusion criteria: women older than 18. Exclusion criteria: being illiterate, those who did not accept being part of the investigation and those who were unable to answer the survey due to their medical condition. The variables studied concerned socio-demographic aspects, clinical diagnoses and those related to violence (i.e. causes, expression and attitudes towards making a legal complaint). Stata 8.0 and SPAD-N 4.5 were used for analysing the data. Results: the prevalence of physical, psychological and sexual violence was 22, 33 and 3.3%, respectively The six groups obtained from the analysis presented a relationship between physical and psychological violence on the one hand and a relationship between psychological and sexual violence on the other. Alcohol consumption was the factor most associated with these kinds of violence. Women who had not experienced episodes of violence had a lower percentage of a threat of preterm childbirth. Conclusions: different type of violence against women as reported by the patients being studied revealed the problem's complexity and suggested that violence prevention programmes should be evaluated.