The world’s largest ever study on domestic violence reveals that more than a quarter of women (27%) have experienced physical or sexual abuse from an intimate partner before the age of 50. This analysis, carried out by researchers from the World Health Organization (WHO) and McGill University, confirms that beyond the legal aspect, domestic violence is a major public health issue.
According to the study published in the journal The Lancet, in 2018, more than 492 million women aged 15 to 49 had experienced this type of violence at least once in their lives since the age of 15. “Domestic violence against women, i.e. physical and sexual violence committed by a husband, a boyfriend or another spouse, is very common in the world,” underlines Mathieu Maheu-Giroux.
The McGill University professor and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Population Health Modeling developed the methodological framework for this vast survey carried out to support the Sustainable Development Goals established in 2015 by the United Nations.
“Goal 5 aims to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls,” says Mathieu Maheu-Giroux. When you set goals, you have to be able to measure where you’re starting from and where you’re going, hence the need for indicators. »
To produce this global statistical portrait, the results of 366 studies on domestic violence conducted in 161 countries among two million women were compiled by WHO and McGill researchers.
young women
In addition to determining that more than one in four women have experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner before the age of 50, the results of this study establish that this violence often occurs early in life. women’s lives.
Thus, 24% of women aged 15 to 19 and 26% of women aged 19 to 24 say they have suffered this type of violence at least once since they were 15, can we read in the article entitled “Global, regional, and national prevalence estimates of physical or sexual, or both, intimate partner violence against women in 2018”.
Regional variations were also observed: higher prevalence rates of intimate partner violence were noted in low-income countries. The regions with the highest prevalence are Oceania (49%), central sub-Saharan Africa (44%), the Andes region of Latin America (38%), eastern Africa Sub-Saharan Africa (38%), South Asia (35%) and North Africa and the Middle East (31%).
As for the lowest rates, they were noted in Central Europe (16%), Central Asia (18%) and Western Europe (20%). A prevalence rate of 25% has been collected in North America.
Public health issue
The WHO and McGill researchers believe that the “high global prevalence” of domestic violence makes it a “worrying” international public health problem.
“Violence committed by an intimate partner can have major effects on short-term and long-term physical and mental health, including injuries, depression, anxiety, unwanted pregnancies. sexually transmitted infections, among others, in addition to being able to lead to death”, write the authors.
The results of this study are all the more worrying as they could underestimate the phenomenon. ” [Les recherches se basent] on self-reported responses from women, notes Mathieu Maheu-Giroux. So a woman may be ashamed to report that she has been abused. »
Nor does the analysis take into account psychological violence, which can have harmful consequences on the lives of women and their children, but which is difficult to assess. Finally, the data was collected before the COVID-19 epidemic, which exacerbated the problem of domestic violence due in particular to confinements, curfews and other restrictions on mobility.
Despite progress made in the implementation of various initiatives aimed at promoting egalitarian relationships and reducing the incidence of violence, “this progress is largely insufficient to achieve the target of the Sustainable Development Goals of eliminating violence against women in ‘by 2030,’ the researchers point out. These call on governments and communities to act more actively and invest more to reduce domestic violence around the world. “Considering in particular that violence between intimate partners is preventable”, they note.