Gender Based Violence And Adverse Reproductive Health Outcomes Among Women With Disabilities In Selected Associations Of People With Disabilities In Addis Ababa Ethiopia
Background: Gender based violence targeting women hinder women’s physical,rnpsychological and social well-being. Despite the fact that, gender based violence hasrnbeen given a great recognition at present time, studies that indicate its magnitude andrnimpacts among disabled women remain scarce.rnObjectives: The study was conducted in order to measure the magnitude of genderrnbased violence and its association with adverse reproductive health outcomes amongrnwomen with disabilities in Addis Ababa.rnMethod: A cross- sectional survey using an anonymous questionnaire supplemented byrnfocus group discussion was conducted among women with disabilities in selectedrnassociation of people with disabilities in Addis Ababa. A total of 528 women withrnselected disabilities were included in the study using Convenience sampling. Two focusrngroup discussions were used for the deaf and physically impaired women in order tornassess their belief and attitude towards the issue. The study also assessed experiencesrnof physical and sexual violence using standard WHO Multi-country study questionnairernand its association with adverse reproductive health outcomes.rnResult: Among the respondents, the prevalence of physical violence was 40.5% andrn30.8% in life time and in the past 12 month respectively. Whereas the prevalence ofrnsexual violence in this order being 42.1% in life time and 57.7% in the past 12 month.rnBoth Physical violence (OR (Adj) =2.00 (95%CI: 1.21, 3.31) and sexual violence withrnOR (Adj) = 4.21 (95% CI: 2.44, 7.25) was associated with Adverse reproductive healthrnoutcomes (unwanted pregnancy, still birth and abortion).rnConclusion: Based on the findings of the survey, it can be suggested that genderrnbased violence is a common and serious problem and highly associated with adversernreproductive health outcomes among women with disabilities. Therefore, it isrnrecommended that GBV needs due attention and remedial actions and Programs aimedrnat preventing gender-based violence must address these identified factors or correlatesrnof violence against women with disabilities.