Within-country ethnic disparities in intimate partner violence against women and associated factors across 37 low- and middle-income countries

Sustainable Development Goal 10 calls for reducing inequalities, including those associated with ethnicity. However, evidence concerning ethnic disparities in intimate partner violence (IPV) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) remains limited. This study aims to assess within-country ethnic disparities in IPV against women and to examine factors associated with the observed disparities. This cross-sectional analysis used data from Demographic and Health Surveys conducted between 2010 and 2023 in 37 countries. A total of 295,623 women aged 15 to 49 years were included. We estimated the prevalence of IPV by ethnic groups and calculated the Theil index (TI) to assess relative ethnic inequality within each country. We then conducted Fairlie decomposition to quantify the extent to which measured factors at the household, relationship, and individual levels statistically accounted for observed differences between the constructed high- and low-IPV-prevalence ethnic-group aggregates. Physical, sexual, and psychological IPV prevalence varied substantially across ethnic groups in most countries. The TI was significantly greater than zero in 29 countries for physical IPV, 21 for sexual IPV, and 26 for psychological IPV, indicating statistically significant within-country ethnic disparities. Descriptively, relatively large TI values were observed in several low-income and lower-middle-income countries. Furthermore, partner’s alcohol use and witnessing parental IPV accounted for notable proportions of the observed differences across all three IPV outcomes, with corresponding proportions of 13.6% (12.0–15.3) and 6.3% (5.3–7.3) in physical IPV, 8.0% (6.1–9.9) and 4.6% (3.4–5.7) in sexual IPV, and 38.3% (34.0–42.6) and 17.9% (15.0–20.7) in psychological IPV, respectively. Household decision-making and educational level also played substantial roles in explaining disparities in sexual IPV (10.7% and 7.2%), as did attitudes towards violence in psychological IPV (7.5%). Within-country ethnic disparities in IPV were widespread across the LMICs included in this study, although their magnitude varied across countries and outcomes. Partner’s alcohol use, witnessing parental IPV, household decision-making, women’s education, and attitudes towards violence emerged as important factors linked to the observed differences. These findings highlight ethnicity as an important dimension of within-country inequality in IPV and warrant further research into the context-specific factors underlying these disparities.