Intimate partner violence among women living in informal settlements: a case study of manzese, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Background: Women experience violence in many different forms. It may be physical, psychological, sexual, economic, social or cultural abuse but most commonly is the combination of these. Studies have shown that the rate of intimate partner violence is still a public health problem in informal settlements. It has both physical and psychological consequences to the victim. Objectives: This study was conducted with the aim of determining the prevalence/magnitude, attitude, characteristics of perpetrators and help seeking behaivour of women who have experienced intimate partner violence. Methodology A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted in Manzese ward. Multistage sampling was used to select the participants and a total of 267 eligible women living in the study area were interviewed. Data were collected through interviewing women using a structured questionnaire. Results: The findings showed the rate of intimate partner violence is still high in this area, the prevalence of physical intimate partner violence was 69.3%, psychological 70%. While for the case of sexual abuse being forced to have sexual intercourse with the husband/intimate partner even when they did not want to do so was reported to be 41.2%, threats of separation was reported by 38.2%. Alcohol use was significantly associated with characteristics of men who were violent to their wives or partners. Men who were using alcohol were more likely to be violent to their wives compared to those who were not using alcohol. Conclusion: The study findings indicate that the prevalence of intimate partner violence in Manzese is high. The majority of women who experienced intimate partner violence did not take any action. There are various reasons which were associated with their silence and the most reported reasons included affection 21.9%, limited financial options 20.8%, and fearing the husband 19.8%. For the respondents who had the tendency of reporting incidences of violence most of them were reporting to family 30.7% and religious leaders 15.7%Recommendations: Therefore with these findings prevention of intimate partner violence should be an urgent public health priority in countries with informal settlements such as Tanzania. There should also be policies and laws which limits people from alcohol abuse. Furthermore health policy makers should also plan for possible interventions on prevention of intimate partner violence including provision of education. Together with forming stations for providing counseling especially to young families. More ever stiffer measures should be taken to perpetrators of intimate partner violence to prevent others from practicing such kind of violence. Healthcare providers from the primary healthcare level onwards need to be sensitized to the issues of intimate partner violence in order to recognize and treat it early. This information obtained should also facilitate the speed of planners and other responsible stakeholders in upgrading of these informal settlements