Detection of gender based violence at three reproductive health services

Abstract

Objective: To determine gender based violence prevalence in reproductive health services users and to motivate heath protessionals to detect these cases using an easy questionnaire. DESIGN: Survey type transversal descriptive study. Material and Methods: Two hundred and ninety-eight reproductive health services users at three Lima hospitals, between May and July 2002. Study searched for history of psychological, physical and sexual violence as well as sexual abuse during childhood. Time of violence and the relation between aggressor and the victim were identified. Data was processed with EpiInfo at the Campinas-Brasil University and Inppares. Results: Sixty-one per cent of the women interviewed accepted being victims of some type of violence, including emotional violence 54%, physical violence 32,2%, sexual violence 21, 1 % and childhood sexual violence 19, 1 %. Main aggressors were de current partner or the ex-husband, and the near family members were responsible for childhood sexual aggression. Conclusion: Gender violence is very frequent among women attended at reproductive health services. Problem detection is not difficult when the questionnaire used in this research is applied.