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Exploring risk factors associated with intimate partner violence in Vietnam: results from a cross-sectional national survey

  • Original Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Objectives

Empirical evidence documents that some risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV) are similar across contexts, while others differ considerably. In Vietnam, there was a need to investigate risk factors for IPV to support evidence-based policy and programming.

Methods

Using the dataset gathered in the 2010 National Study on Domestic Violence against Women, forty variables were explored in logistic regression analysis, including socio-demographic characteristics of women and their husbands, other experiences with violence, husband’s behaviours, family support, and context-specific variables such as the sex of their children.

Results

Fifteen independent factors remained strongly associated with IPV. Significant risk was associated with husbands’ behaviour that supports male power (extra-marital relationships; fighting with other men) and alcohol use. Violence experienced in childhood increased the likelihood of women experiencing and of men perpetrating IPV. Notable was further the association with women’s higher financial contribution to the household and lack of association with not having sons.

Conclusions

The findings support theories describing how underlying gender and power imbalance are fundamental causes of IPV and indicate the need for context-specific interventions.

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Acknowledgments

The national study was a joint endeavour between Vietnam’s General Statistics Office (GSO), the Ministry of Health, World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Center for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population (CCIHP), implemented as part of the United Nations (UN)-Government of Vietnam Joint Programme on Gender Equality. The core research team members for the study consisted of Henrica A. F. M. Jansen, Thi Viet Nga Nguyen, Hoang Tu Anh, plus Nguyen Dang Vung, Quach Thu Trang, Do Anh Kiem, Marta Arranz Calamita and Sarah De Hovre. Seema Vyas conducted the computation of the household assets index and Pauline Gulliver provided input to this manuscript. Funding for the original study was provided by the Spanish-funded Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund (MDG-F), and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) in Vietnam. Funding for the risk factor analysis used in this paper was provided by the UNFPA Vietnam Country Office as part of their support to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) under the framework of the UN in Vietnam One Plan 2012–2016. We are deeply grateful to the 4838 women who agreed to be interviewed for the survey.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. United Nations Population Fund, Asia and the Pacific Regional Office (APRO), 4th Floor UN Service Building, Rajadamnoen Nok Avenue, Bangkok, 10200, Thailand

    Henrica A. F. M. Jansen

  2. General Statistics Office (GSO), 6b Hoàng Dieu, Badinh, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Thi Viet Nga Nguyen

  3. Center for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population (CCIHP), 48, 251/08 Nguyen Khang, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Tu Anh Hoang

Authors
  1. Henrica A. F. M. Jansen
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  2. Thi Viet Nga Nguyen
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  3. Tu Anh Hoang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Henrica A. F. M. Jansen.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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This article is part of the special issue “Violence and Health: Implications of the 2030 Agenda for South-North Collaboration”.

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Jansen, H.A.F.M., Nguyen, T.V.N. & Hoang, T.A. Exploring risk factors associated with intimate partner violence in Vietnam: results from a cross-sectional national survey. Int J Public Health 61, 923–934 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-016-0879-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-016-0879-8

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