A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON GENDER-BASED DOMESTIC VIOLENCE BETWEEN MARRIED WOMEN AND MEN IN SABON GARI LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF KADUNA STATE

Abstract

Background
Gender-based violence (GBV) is on the increase in recent years and it’s both a public health problem and a human rights violation. Majority of researches have documented the magnitude, determinants and consequences of GBV against women but there is paucity of knowledge on GBV against men. The objective of the study was to compare GBV among married men and women in Sabon Gari LGA of Kaduna State with the aim of determining point prevalence, perceived causes, risk factors and health consequences. The study also looked at the pattern of reported cases of GBV to the Police Department of the LGA.
Methodology
The study was a comparative cross-sectional community based survey. Community based data was obtained from a total of 500 men and 500 women selected by multistage sampling using structured, interviewer-administered, close ended questionnaires. A review of 2 years police record on GBV was conducted. Eight focus group discussions among married men and women, female and male youth were conducted and 3 Key informant interviews comprising of the head of social welfare department, Judge of Sharia Court and head of Police crime division of Sabon Gari LGA were done.
Results
Results from the study revealed the mean age of men was 45 years (SD = 10.77) compared to the mean age of 33.19 years (SD = 11.68) of women. Majority of the respondents were aware of GBV with more men (87.6%) compared to women (84.6%). The major cause of GBV as perceived by
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women was disobedience to husband (93.7%). Other reasons perceived were disobedience to elders (70.5%), nagging (60.3%), neglect to carry out household activities (61.0%) and poverty (54.5%). Comparatively the major causes of GBV as perceived by men was husbands not caring for their wives (96.8%). Other reasons perceived were husbands not giving wives enough money for home up keep (60.6%) and the least perceived causes for abuse was husband involved in stressful job that takes a lot of his time (13%). The knowledge on GBV was high among both men (87.6%) and women (84.6%) but this findings were not statistically significant (p=0.185). The prevalence of GBV was high among both men and women with two in five reporting GBV. There were gender difference in the prevalence of physical (p=0.026) and verbal (p=0.000) abuse but no difference in sexual (p=0.339) abuse among men and women. Analysis of risk factors among men highlights the pivotal roles of alcohol consumption, young age (20-34 years), childhood history of abuse, and witnessing parents abusing each other. The risk factors among women were young age and witnessing parents abusing their spouses. The health consequence of the abuse among men and women were hypertension (11.3% and 4.3%), GI symptoms (7% and 5.8%), bruises (1.4% and 7.2%) and laceration (2.8% and 1.4%) respectively.
Conclusion
The prevalence of GBV is high among men and women. There is need for interventions to prevent or reduce the incidence of GBV in the society while advocating for policies to punish perpetrators and programs to carter for victims of abuse taking into consideration the peculiarities of the setting.