title: Physical, emotional and sexual violence during pregnancy in Malatya, Turkey.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In Turkey, violence against women was established as a critical area of concern related to women and various prevention strategies have been developed since 1980. There are limited numbers of studies on violence during pregnancy in the country. This study was performed to determine the prevalence of physical, emotional and sexual violence during pregnancy in Malatya province and the associated factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional interview survey was conducted among pregnant women living in Malatya province between October 2003 and May 2004. Stratified probability-proportional-to-size sampling methodology was used for selecting the study population. A total of 824 pregnant women from 60 clusters were studied. Association between violence prevalences and womens' sociodemographic, fertility and behavioural characteristics were evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During pregnancy 31.7% of women were exposed to any form of violence. Emotional violence was the most frequently reported form (26.7%), followed by sexual (9.7%) and physical violence (8.1%). Regular smoking [odds ratio (OR) 1.6], unwanted pregnancy (OR 1.8), living in urban area (OR 1.5), low education level of husband (OR 1.7), low family income (OR 1.9) and being in second trimester (OR 1.4) were determined to be the main predictors of overall violence during pregnancy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Violence during pregnancy is a common public health problem in Malatya. Low education level in partners, low family income, husband's unemployment, urban settlement, unwanted pregnancy and smoking should alert health staff towards violence at pregnancy and training of health personnel on the subject is recommended.
authors.affiliation: Public Health Department, Medical Faculty, Inonu University, Malatya, Turkey. lkaraoglu@inonu.edu.tr
authors.forename: Leyla
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Karaoglu
authors.forename: Osman
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Celbis
authors.forename: Cihan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ercan
authors.forename: Mehtap
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ilgar
authors.forename: Erkan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pehlivan
authors.forename: Gulsen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gunes
authors.forename: Metin F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Genc
authors.forename: Mucahit
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Egri
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D017579:Domestic Violence / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D011247:Pregnancy; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D014421:Turkey