ArticleBMC public health2025
Help-seeking behaviors among survivors of intimate partner violence during pregnancy in 54 low- and middle-income countries: evidence from Demographic and Health Survey data.
Article in BMC public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Psychological experiences and needs of perinatal women experiencing intimate partner violence: a qualitative meta-synthesis.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Can men's violence reporting behavior be improved? Evidence from a couples-based cluster randomized controlled trial in Tanzania.Frontiers in public health · 2025Trial
- Help-seeking among women with disabilities who experience domestic violence in Uganda: evidence from UDHS 2006, 2011, and 2016.Global health action · 2026Article
- Initial organizational practices and contextual factors related to brain injury screening and referral in intimate partner violence serving community- based organizations.Research square · 2026Article
- A brief educational intervention to improve health service responsiveness to intimate partner violence: a mixed methods evaluation.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- The Intersection of Intimate Partner Violence, Life Stressors, and Perinatal Loss Among Black Women from the United States: Implications for Enhancing Maternity Care Quality and Public Health Practice.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Factors influencing help-seeking behaviour among young women with experience of intimate partner violence in Nigeria.BMC women's health · 2025Article
- Intimate partner violence during pregnancy against 601,534 women aged 15 to 49 years in 57 LMICs: prevalence, disparities, trends and associated factors using Demographic and Health Survey data.EClinicalMedicine · 2025Article
- Factors Influencing Formal and Informal Help-Seeking Behavior Among Battered Chinese Women in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Perspectives on post-violence support-seeking and service provision among adolescent girls and young women: Insights from community conversations in Lusaka, Zambia.Women's health (London, England)Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIntimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy is a global issue of public health importance. Due to the low rates of help-seeking in response to IPV, research on survivors' help-seeking behaviors is scarce, particularly within low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The present study provides a cross-national evidence of informal and formal help-seeking patterns among pregnant women experiencing IPV.
methodsThis study made use of population-based data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program from 54 LMICs, collected between 2005 and 2020 (N = 359,027). Applying bivariate and multivariable analyses, the present study examined IPV survivors' help-seeking distributions and associations with individual, partner, family, and community factors.
resultsOnly half of survivors sought help in response to IPV during pregnancy with wide regional and national variations, mainly from informal support networks (including family, neighbors, and friends), and rarely from formal institutions (including legal, socio-cultural, and medical services). Evidence shows that help-seeking behaviors were associated with IPV survivors' age and educational attainment, survivors' employment status and earnings compared to their partners, survivors' consumption of mass media, intimate partner's age and education, spouse's alcohol consumption and controlling behaviors, survivors' wealth index, place of residence, and health-seeking barriers, among others.
conclusionPractitioners are encouraged to consider the study's outcomes when designing interventions and support for survivors seeking help in response to IPV during pregnancy. Strong advocacy and action are needed, including fostering survivors' educational attainment, diminishing pregnant women's social and financial dependencies on their intimate partners, promoting pre- and peri-natal health care, informing survivors about help, and increasing gender equality by engaging women and men equally within the whole community.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.