RESEARCH ARTICLE
Association between Intimate Partner Violence during Pregnancy and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes in Vietnam: A Prospective Cohort Study Thanh Nguyen Hoang1*, Toan Ngo Van 1, Tine Gammeltoft2, Dan W. Meyrowitsch3, Hanh Nguyen Thi Thuy1, Vibeke Rasch4,5
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1 Institute of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Hanoi Medical University, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2 Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 3 Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 4 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark, 5 Department of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark *
[email protected] Abstract OPEN ACCESS Citation: Hoang TN, Van TN, Gammeltoft T, W. Meyrowitsch D, Nguyen Thi Thuy H, Rasch V (2016) Association between Intimate Partner Violence during Pregnancy and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes in Vietnam: A Prospective Cohort Study. PLoS ONE 11 (9): e0162844. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0162844 Editor: Jaymie Meliker, Stony Brook University, Graduate Program in Public Health, UNITED STATES
Background Violence against pregnant women is an increasing public health concern particularly in lowand middle-income countries. The purpose of this study was to measure the association between intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy and the risk of adverse birth outcomes.
Received: July 5, 2016
Methods
Accepted: August 29, 2016
Prospective cohort study of 1276 pregnant women in Dong Anh district, Vietnam. Women with gestational age less than 24 weeks were enrolled and interviewed. Repeated interviews were performed at 30–34 weeks gestation to assess experience of IPV during pregnancy and again 48 hours post-delivery to assess the birth outcome including birth weight and gestational age at delivery.
Published: September 15, 2016 Copyright: © 2016 Hoang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files. Funding: This work was supported by the Danish International Development Agency. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, manuscript preparation. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Results There was a statistically significant association between exposure to physical violence during pregnancy and preterm birth (PTB) or low birth weight (LBW). After adjustment for age, education, occupation, body mass index (BMI), haemoglobin level, previous adverse pregnancy outcomes, the pregnant women who were exposed to physical violence during pregnancy were five times more likely to have PTB (AOR = 5.5; 95%CI: 2.1–14.1) and were nearly six times more likely to give birth to a child of LBW (AOR = 5.7; 95%CI: 2.2–14.9) as compared to those who were not exposed to physical violence.
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0162844 September 15, 2016
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Intimate Partner Violence during Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes: A Prospective Cohort Study
Conclusion Exposure to IPV during pregnancy increases the risk of PTB and LBW. Case-finding for violence in relation to antenatal care may help protect pregnant women and improve pregnancy outcomes.
Introduction Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is an increasing public health concern particularly in low- and middle-income countries [1, 2]. According to a recent report from World Health Organisation (WHO), 35% of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual violence [3]. Pregnant women constitute a particularly vulnerable sub-group, with prevalence rates of IPV during pregnancy ranging between 4% and 29% [4]. IPV during pregnancy does not only affect the women’s health, but also imposes adverse health effect of the newborn children and their later development [5–7]. Preterm birth (PTB), defined as birth of infant before 37 weeks of gestation and low birth weight (LBW), defined as birth weight