1. Association of various reproductive rights, domestic violence and marital rape with depression among Pakistani women.
- Author
-
Ali FA, Israr SM, Ali BS, and Janjua NZ
- Subjects
- Adolescent, Adult, Asian People psychology, Asian People statistics & numerical data, Battered Women psychology, Battered Women statistics & numerical data, Case-Control Studies, Depressive Disorder psychology, Developing Countries statistics & numerical data, Domestic Violence psychology, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Pakistan epidemiology, Rape psychology, Sexual Behavior psychology, Sexual Behavior statistics & numerical data, Spouse Abuse psychology, Surveys and Questionnaires, Depressive Disorder epidemiology, Domestic Violence statistics & numerical data, Rape statistics & numerical data, Reproductive Rights statistics & numerical data, Spouse Abuse statistics & numerical data
- Abstract
Background: Depression among women is common in developing countries. Gender inequality can contribute to women's risk for depression. Lack of reproductive and sexual rights is an important marker of gender inequality and women do not have the freedom to express their reproductive and sexual needs in many parts of the world. Therefore we designed this study to determine the association of depression with lack of various reproductive rights and domestic violence among married women in Karachi, Pakistan., Methods: A case-control study with 152 cases and 152 controls, which included women 15-48 years, recruited from two teaching hospitals from 1st June 2007 through 31st August 2007. The SRQ was administered to all subjects. A cut off score of 8 was used to confirm cases of depression diagnosed by physicians, and to exclude cases of depression from the controls. Self-administered questionnaire was used to assess the risk factors., Results: 61% of the cases and 43% of the controls were ever abused by spouse and the frequency of marital rape was 33% in cases and 13% in controls. After adjusting for the effects of other variables in the model, less than 18 years of age at marriage (OR 2.00; 95% CI = 1.07, 3.7), decision for marriage by parents (OR 3.51; 95% CI = 1.67, 7.37), abuse by in laws (OR 4.91; 95% CI = 2.66, 9.06),
- Published
- 2009
- Full Text
- View/download PDF