Transitions in women’s experience of physical domestic violence during 2001–2020 and related risk and protective factors: the MINIMat longitudinal cohort study in rural Bangladesh

Naved, Ruchira Tabassum ; Antu, Jannatul Ferdous ; Mamun, Mahfuz Al ; Parvin, Kausar und Ziaei, Shirin (2025): Transitions in women’s experience of physical domestic violence during 2001–2020 and related risk and protective factors: the MINIMat longitudinal cohort study in rural Bangladesh. In: BMJ Global Health, Bd. 10, Nr. 12, e018458

Abstract

Introduction: Repeated exposure to domestic violence (DV) is common among women; however, little is known about how women's experiences of DV change over time. This study explores transitions in women's experience of physical DV over a 19-year period (2001-2020) and identifies risk and protective factors for such transitions in violence using data from the MINIMat cohort study in rural Bangladesh.

Methods: Data on physical DV were collected using a modified Conflict Tactic Scale from a cohort of 1078 women, from Matlab, a rural subdistrict of Bangladesh, recruited during pregnancy and followed up 10 and 18 years after the birth of the index child. Discrete-time Markov Chain and covariate-dependent Markov models were used to identify transitions across time points and associated and risk and protective factors among women who transitioned from: (1) no lifetime violence at enrolment to victimisation at 10-year follow-up and (2) lifetime victimisation at enrolment to revictimisation at 10-year follow-up. Risk and protective factors for revictimisation at 18-year follow-up were also identified.

Results: Most women reporting lifetime physical DV at enrolment experienced revictimisation at 10-year follow-up (70%), while 30% of women without prior experience of DV reported new victimisation. Revictimisation was lower at 18-year follow-up among women victimised at both prior points (30%). Low agency in decision-making and high agency in mobility increased likelihood of physical DV at 10-year follow-up regardless of violence status at enrolment. Living with in-laws protected against revictimisation at 10-year follow-up (adjusted OR (aOR) 2.53; 95% CI 1.30 to 4.91). Higher age (aOR 0.87; 95% CI 0.80 to 0.95) and non-governmental organisation (NGO) membership (aOR 0.23; 95% CI 0.09 to 0.55) reduced risk of revictimisation at 18-year follow-up.

Conclusion: Findings highlight the complex nature of women's empowerment and its evolving relationship with DV over time. Tailored approaches to empowerment and targeting older women in NGO programmes may offer long-term protection.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Keywords: Cohort study; Global Health; Interdisciplinary Research
• Fakultät: Medizin > Institut für Medizinische Informationsverarbeitung, Biometrie und Epidemiologie
• Themengebiete: 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften > 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
• ISSN: 2059-7908
• Sprache: Englisch