Intimate Partner Violence and its Association With Contraceptive Use Among Women in Pakistan

The aim of this study is to find the association between Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and contraceptive use among married women in Pakistan. The analysis was conducted by using cross sectional secondary data from every married women of reproductive age 15-49 years who responded to domestic violence module (N = 3687) of the 2012-13 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey. The association between contraceptive use (outcome variable) and IPV was measured by calculating unadjusted odds ratios and adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals using simple binary logistic regression and multivariable binary logistic regression. The result showed that out of 3687 women, majority of women 2126 (57.7%) were using contraceptive in their marital relationship. Among total, 1154 (31.3%) women experienced emotional IPV, 1045 (28.3%) women experienced physical IPV and 1402 (38%) women experienced both physical and emotional IPV together respectively. All types of IPV was significantly associated with contraceptive use and women who reported emotional IPV (AOR 1.44; 95% CI 1.23, 1.67), physical IPV (AOR 1.41; 95% CI 1.20, 1.65) and both emotional and physical IPV together (AOR 1.49; 95% CI 1.24, 1.72) were more likely to use contraceptives respectively. The study revealed that women who were living in violent relationship were more likely to use contraceptive in Pakistan. Still there is a need for women reproductive health services and government should take initiatives to promote family planning services, awareness and access to contraceptive method options for women to reduce unintended or mistimed pregnancies that occurred in violent relationships.