Prevalence and Determinants of Domestic Violence Against Women Living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus in Anambra State, Nigeria

Domestic violence and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection (HIV) continue to be a serious public health challenge. Domestic violence, including intimate partner violence among women living with HIV, interferes with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 3 and 5. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and risk factors for domestic violence against women living with HIV/AIDS. A descriptive cross-sectional study design was employed to sample 300 women living with HIV attending HIV clinic at the Teaching Hospital in Southeast Nigeria. Informed consent was obtained, and an interviewer-administered questionnaire adapted from the WHO Multi-Country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence was used for data collection. The respondents' mean age was 37.3±11.4 years. The study showed that 55.3% of the respondents do not know the HIV status of their partners. The overall physical, emotional, and sexual prevalence of domestic violence in this study were 15.3%, 13.3%, 8.7%, and 5.0% respectively. The risk factors that were statistically significant in this study were the respondent's age (P: 0.001; χ2: 15.43; 95% CL: 1.579-50.517), the partner's level of educational (P:0.048; χ2:3.91; 95% CI: 0.890 - 25.444), the number of children (P:0.003; χ2: 7.80; 95% CI: 2.995 - 60.707), and marital status(P:0.03; χ2: 2.830; 95% CI: 1.117 – 28.926). A practical solution that requires a holistic and interdisciplinary approach that will involve the victim, the perpetrator, the community, the policy makers, the government and the non–governmental stakeholders is inevitable.