title: Domestic violence in Iranian infertile women.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Millions of men and women suffer from infertility worldwide. In many cultures, infertile women are at risk of social and emotional problems. Infertility may affect the public health in many countries. Domestic violence is the intentional use of physical force, power or threat against oneself, another person or another group or community which leads to injury, death, mental harm, lack of development or deprivation. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of domestic violence against infertile women who referred to the infertility centres of Tehran, Iran in 2011.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was cross- sectional descriptive study conducted on 400 infertile women who were selected through convenient sampling method. The questionnaire used in this study included two sections: a demographic section with questions about demographic characteristics of the infertile women and their husbands; and the domestic violence questionnaire with questions about physical, emotional and sexual violence. Data were analysed by SPSS16; descriptive statistics, Spearman's test, t- test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and logistic regression were used for data analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four hundred women with the average age of 30.50 ± 6.16 years participated in the study; of whom, 34.7% experienced domestic violence physical violence (5.3%), emotional violence (74.3%) and sexual violence (47.3%). Domestic violence was significantly associated with unwanted marriage, number of IVFs, drug abuse, emotional status of the women, smoking and addiction or drug abuse of the spouse, mental and physical diseases of the husband (p< 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Many of the current problems in this society, particularly in families are due to the transition of the society from a traditional model to a modern one. The majority of the infertile women experience violence in Iran. Domestic violence against infertile women is a problem that should not be ignored. Clinicians should identify abused women. Providing counseling services to women in infertility treatment centers is suggested to prevent domestic violence against infertile women.
authors.affiliation: 1. MSc, The Research Center for Safe Motherhood, Department of Midwifery and Reproductive Health, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. zsheikhan@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Zohre
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sheikhan
authors.affiliation: 2. PhD, The Research Center for Safe Motherhood, Department of Midwifery and Reproductive Health, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. gozgoli@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Giti
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ozgoli
authors.affiliation: 3. Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Mahyar_Azar1955@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Mahyar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Azar
authors.affiliation: 4. AssociateProfessor, Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Paramedics, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. alavimajd@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Hamid
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Alavimajd
keywords: Domestic Violence; Infertile Women