Studies largely from high-income countries show that children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) face potential adverse health and developmental outcomes. Limited research has focused on whether IPV exposure affects children's early education participation, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where early education is gaining traction. This study examines whether young children aged 3 to 5 years, living in households affected by IPV, are less likely to be enrolled in school using nationally representative data from India.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Adapting and testing a novel measure of family planning self-efficacy (FPSE) and examining its association with fertility intention and contraceptive use in India.
Study Design: Data were analyzed from 13,901 non-sterilized, currently married women of reproductive age (15-49 years) in the Bihar Integrated Family Planning Survey (BIFS) 2021. We adapted an FP Self Efficacy measure comprising women's agency to overcome barriers to accessing, discussing and using contraception, regardless of family pressure and social judgment.
We draw lessons from immunization research by assessing the applicability of the 5C framework of vaccine hesitancy to contraceptive acceptability in sub-Saharan Africa.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Gender-based violence is a tool that primarily functions to maintain gendered power hierarchies. Manifestations of gender-based violence, sexual assault and street harassment have been shown to have significant effects on mental wellbeing in the global North, however there is little research centering the experiences and consequences of gendered harassment in the Africa region.
Methods: We analyzed a cross-sectional random sample of 372 women attending a major university in Eswatini in 2017 to measure the prevalence of street harassment among female university students and assess the relationship between experiences of sexual assault, sexualized street harassment, and mental health outcomes in this population.
Rationale: Women's empowerment is a UN Sustainable Development Goal and a focus of global health and development but survey measures and data on gender empowerment remain weak. Existing indicators are often disconnected from theory; stronger operationalization is needed.
Objective: We present the EMERGE Framework to Measure Empowerment, a framework to strengthen empowerment measures for global health and development.
Extreme climate events are related to women's exposure to different forms of violence. We examined the relationship between droughts and physical, sexual, and emotional intimate partner violence (IPV) in India by using 2 different definitions of drought: precipitation-based drought and socioeconomic drought. We analyzed data from 2 rounds of a nationally representative survey, the National Family Health Survey, where married women were asked about their experiences of IPV in the previous year (2015-2016 and 2019-2021; n = 122,696).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Online misogyny is a violation of women's digital rights. Empirical studies on this topic are however lacking, particularly in low- and middle- income countries. The current study aimed to estimate whether prevalence of online misogyny on Twitter in India changed since the pandemic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To examine the association between self-managed abortion and the self-reported experience of abortion complications in India, a country with a high incidence of self-managed abortion.
Patients And Methods: The study used a cross-sectional multivariable logistic regression analysis of data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) of 2015-2016 to compare the odds of self-reported complications experienced during abortion between self-managed and clinician-managed abortions in India.
Results: On average, self-managed abortions occurred earlier in gestation than clinician-managed abortions, 7.
Background: Although intimate partner violence (IPV) against women is a substantial challenge in India, response is limited by little evidence on substate prevalence. District-level IPV estimates are essential in targeted response and prevention efforts, but cannot be directly calculated from the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS), which is the main source of nationally representative IPV estimates in India. We aimed to use small-area estimation techniques to derive reliable estimates of physical, emotional, and sexual IPV for the 640 districts of India.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite extensive debate on the effects of COVID-19 mitigation measures in school settings, little evidence exists on trends in school children's mental health over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of this paper was to identify factors affecting parent reports of school children's mental health during COVID-19 Omicron variant outbreak in a cohort of high-risk, socially vulnerable children attending public elementary schools. We analyzed four waves of cross-sectional, online-administered surveys completed by parents of children attending public elementary schools in San Diego between November 2021 and March of 2022.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Globalisation and industrialisation can increase economic opportunity for low/middle-income nations, but these processes may also increase industrial accidents and harm workers. This paper examines the long-term, cohort-based health effects of the Bhopal gas disaster (BGD), one of the most serious industrial accidents in history.
Design: This retrospective analysis uses geolocated data on health and education from India's National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4) and the 1999 Indian Socio-Economic Survey by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO-1999) to examine the health effects of exposure to the BGD among men and women aged 15-49 years living in Madhya Pradesh in 2015-2016 (women n=40 786; men n=7031 (NFHS-4) and n=13 369 (NSSO-1999)), as well as their children (n=1260).
Background: Niger has the highest rate of adolescent fertility in the world, with early marriage, early childbearing and high gender inequity. This study assesses the impact of Reaching Married Adolescents (RMA), a gender-synchronized social behavioral intervention designed to improve modern contraceptive use and reduce intimate partner violence (IPV) among married adolescent couples in rural Niger.
Methods: We conducted a four-armed cluster-randomized trial in 48 villages across three districts in Dosso region, Niger.
Despite India having a high burden of infant deaths and preterm birth, there is a clear lack of studies documenting association between preterm birth and infant mortality in India. Additionally, existing studies have failed to account for unobserved heterogeneity while linking preterm birth with infant mortality. Hence, the present study examines association of preterm birth with early neonatal death (ENND), late neonatal death (LNND), and postneonatal death (PNND) in India.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWomen's engagement in the decision to use contraception, an indicator captured in the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), is frequently used to assess women's reproductive agency. In 2014, DHS added a corollary question to the women's questionnaire on decision-making not to use contraception. Study authors hypothesize that women's engagement in decision-making not to use contraception is also indicative of reproductive agency.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Short interpregnancy interval (IPI) is a well-known risk factor for preterm births and low birth weights. However, research on the association between interpregnancy interval (IPI) and health outcomes in children under age 5 is limited in India. We examined the associations between IPI and five child health outcomes in India.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntra-uterine devices (IUDs) are a safe and effective method to delay or space pregnancies and are available for free or at low cost in the Indian public health system; yet, IUD uptake in India remains low. Limited quantitative research using national data has explored factors that may affect IUD use. Machine Learning (ML) techniques allow us to explore determinants of low prevalence behaviors in survey research, such as IUD use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Published literature documents tremendous gender inequities in the social, economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but less evidence has come from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and even less from LMIC-based authors. We examine whether a) COVID-19 burden and b) LMIC-based authorship were associated with academic publications related to COVID-19 and women's well-being in LMICs.
Methods: We reviewed academic articles on COVID-19 and women's well-being in LMICs published between February 2020 and May 2021 (1076 articles), using six electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, PsycInfo, EconLit, RePeC, NBER).
Background: While the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted people worldwide, refugee communities are particularly vulnerable to the pandemic's social, economic and health impacts. This study assessed factors associated with increases in adverse community effects of COVID-19 in a refugee community in California.
Methods: This study uses data from a cross-sectional survey developed and administered as part of a participatory action research project by a refugee community organization in San Diego, California.
This study aimed to understand whether maternal child marriage and past year intimate partner violence (IPV) impact stunting among Sri Lankan children under 5 years old, and, secondarily, whether proximity to conflict is associated with stunting. Additionally, we assessed whether proximity to conflict moderates the relationships between maternal child marriage and past year IPV (sexual, physical, and emotional). We tested these questions using logistic regression analyses of the 2016 Sri Lankan Demographic and Health Survey (n = 4941 mother-child dyads).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Previous studies have shown that women who experience intimate partner violence have higher rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion-but whether there are differences between the types of abortion care accessed is unknown. Understanding the predictors of self-managed abortion is important for providing risk-mitigating information and resources to those at highest risk for unintended pregnancy and intimate partner violence. With access to information and medication abortion drugs, it is possible that self-managed abortion can be performed safely, increasing reproductive autonomy for women.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Studies from many contexts indicate that proximity to conflict is associated with increased likelihood of intimate partner violence (IPV), and girl child marriage is associated with both proximity to conflict and increased IPV. In this study, we consider whether girl child marriage acts as a mediator of the association between proximity to conflict and IPV in the context of Sri Lanka, which sustained long-term conflict until 2009.
Methods: We analyzed responses of currently partnered women between ages 18 and 49 in the 2016 Sri Lankan Demographic and Health Survey (N = 13,691).
Background: Despite the low prevalence of help-seeking behavior among victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) in India, quantitative evidence on risk factors, is limited. We use a previously validated exploratory approach, to examine correlates of help-seeking from anyone (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResearch on the association between experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) and contraceptive use discontinuation in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is limited. This study aims to fill this important gap using microdata collected from women aged 15-49 in the 2015-2016 National Family Health Survey (NFHS). Analyses used multivariable multinomial logistic regressions stratified by long-acting reversible contraceptive methods (LARC)/non-LARC and condom/pill to examine the association between experience of IPV and contraceptive use discontinuation while still in need (DWSIN).
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