Violence Against Women in Developing Countries: Statistical Challenges

• Activity Number: 316
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 3, 2010 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Biometrics Section
• Author(s): Hrishikesh Chakraborty*+
• Companies: RTI International
• Keywords: Violence against women ; design and analysis ; Couple Violence ; intervention trial

Abstract

Violence against women is no longer regarded as a personal or private matter but it is now well recognized as a global public health problem and as a gross violation of human rights. Globally, one-third of women reported physical or sexual violence and in South East Asia, 50% of women reported physical violence by their husband or partner. Violence can lead to not only injury, but also depression, negative self-esteem, and general psychological distress in the victims. The main difficulties of employing a viable study to evaluate the intervention effect are lack of participation and denial. The major challenges are safety, confidentiality, ethical, compliance, and data collection which create design and analysis difficulties. We present results from a couple violence survey conducted in India, and a proposed intervention trial design for the main study, to overcome these challenges.