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Sexual and domestic violence among women attending a STI/AIDS clinic in Vitória, Brazil

Authors :
Raquel Barbosa Miranda
Maria Alix Leite Araújo
Bettina Moulin Coelho Lima
Roumayne Fernandes Andrade
Nathalia Lima
Angélica Espinosa Miranda
Source :
DST, Vol 28, Iss 1 (2022)
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
Zeppelini Editorial e Comunicacao, 2022.

Abstract

Introduction: Violence against women can take several forms; ranging from sexual harassment, discrimination, and discounting to even more serious forms such as those physical and sexual in nature. Objective: To describe the frequency of domestic and sexual violence reported by women attending a sexually transmitted infections (STI) clinic in Vitória, Brazil. Methods: Women attending the STI/AIDS clinic during the period of study were invited to participate and were interviewed after signing a written consent form. The assessment questionnaire included information on socio-demographic characteristics such as risk behaviors for STI and clinical, domestic, and sexual violence reports. Results: A total of 276 (96.8%) women agreed to participate, of which 109 (39.5%) were HIV-positive and 167 (60.5%) were HIV-negative. History of domestic violence was reported by 52.6% of women, mainly related to alcohol abuse (41.6%), use of illicit drugs (27.2%), and psychiatric problems (25.3%). Previous sexual violence was reported by 28.6%, and 31.6% of these cases occurred when the participants were younger than 14 years old. A total of 69.2% of women were between 18 and 34 years old; 11.2% reported frequent use of alcohol; 21% use of illicit drugs and 2.2% reported injectable drugs. Regarding the use of condoms, HIV-positive women were less afraid to ask the partner to use condoms compared with HIV-negative women (31.2% versus 41.9%, p=0.022). Conclusion: History of domestic and sexual violence was frequently reported in this study. The effects of violence to women’s physical and mental health are widely known as a serious public health problem. In addition to its importance, violence is an invisible problem in our society and we need to learn how to approach it during clinical consultation.

Details

Language :
English, Portuguese
ISSN :
21778264
Volume :
28
Issue :
1
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
DST
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.1aa32b2b0b641b186e12d84e506f115
Document Type :
article