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How do area-level socioeconomic status and gender norms affect partner violence against women? Evidence from Tanzania

  • Original Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Objectives

To explore how area-level socioeconomic status and gender-related norms influence partner violence against women in Tanzania.

Methods

We analysed data from the 2010 Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey and used multilevel logistic regression to estimate individual and community-level effects on women’s risk of current partner violence.

Results

Prevalence of current partner violence was 36.1 %; however, variation in prevalence exists across communities. Twenty-nine percent of the variation in the logodds of partner violence is due to community-level influences. When adjusting for individual-level characteristics, this variation falls to 10 % and falls further to 8 % when adjusting for additional community-level factors. Higher levels of women’s acceptance towards wife beating, male unemployment, and years of schooling among men were associated with higher risk of partner violence; however, higher levels of women in paid work were associated with lower risk.

Conclusions

Area-level poverty and inequitable gender norms were associated with higher risk of partner violence. Empowerment strategies along with addressing social attitudes are likely to achieve reductions in rates of partner violence against women in Tanzania and in other similar low-income country settings.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College, Moshi, Tanzania

    Seema Vyas & Lori Heise

  2. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK

    Seema Vyas

Authors
  1. Seema Vyas
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  2. Lori Heise
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Seema Vyas.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Ethical approval

This study analyses secondary data gathered as part of the DHS programme. The DHS ethical review states “Procedures and questionnaires for standard DHS surveys have been reviewed and approved by the ICF International Institutional Review Board (IRB). Additionally, country-specific DHS survey protocols are reviewed by the ICF IRB and typically by an IRB in the host country. The ICF International IRB ensures that the survey complies with the US Department of Health and Human Services regulations for the protection of human subjects (45 CFR 46), while the host country IRB ensures that the survey complies with laws and norms of the nation.”

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the original study. http://dhsprogram.com/What-We-Do/Protecting-the-Privacy-of-DHS-Survey-Respondents.cfm.

Additional information

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

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Vyas, S., Heise, L. How do area-level socioeconomic status and gender norms affect partner violence against women? Evidence from Tanzania. Int J Public Health 61, 971–980 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-016-0876-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-016-0876-y

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