Intimate Partner Violence Among Rwandan Women With HIV: A Cross-Sectional Study.
Sandy Hatoum, Donatilla Mukamana, Darius Gishoma and 3 others
PMID 38569185WHAT IT FOUND
26.6% of Rwandan women with HIV who had been in a dating relationship in the past year reported lifetime intimate partner violence, mostly psychological.
It was linked with higher HIV stigma and lower self-esteem and coping, not depression.
Key findings
01Among 124 Rwandan women with HIV who reported a dating relationship in the past year, 33 had ever experienced IPV and 91 had not, giving a lifetime IPV rate of 26.6%; psychological IPV was most common at 24%, physical at 17%, and sexual at 14%.
02IPV odds were 1.28 times higher for urban women than rural women, and 1.30 times higher for low-income women than very-low-income women; age and education showed no statistically different IPV rates.
03Women who experienced IPV had lower self-esteem and lower coping self-efficacy and higher perceived, anticipated, experienced, and internalized HIV stigma than women who did not; depression did not differ, and the difference in hope was not significant (p = 0.08).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only 124 of the 162 recruited women were analysed because 38 had not been in an intimate relationship in the past year, so the findings do not apply to women without a partner in that period. The cross-sectional design measured IPV and psychological outcomes at one time point, so it cannot show whether IPV caused stigma, lower self-esteem, or lower coping, or whether those factors were related to reporting IPV. Participants were purposefully recruited from selected health centers in Kigali city and Rulindo district, which may not represent all Rwandan women with HIV. IPV was assessed using 8 selected Conflict Tactics Scale victimization items recoded as yes/no, which may not capture the full pattern or severity of violence. Women showing acute psychological or physiological distress at consent were excluded, so the sample may not include women in immediate crisis. The authors recommend IPV screening in HIV care but do not identify a specific validated screening tool for this setting.
Declared interests
No author conflict-of-interest declaration is included in the supplied text. Publication metadata indicates non-U.S. government and NIH extramural research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that IPV causes higher stigma, lower self-esteem, or lower coping. The study measured these associations at one time point and cannot show which came first. It also analysed only women with HIV who had been in a dating relationship in the past year, so it does not describe IPV risk for all women.