patterns of intimate partner violence: a study of female victims in urban versus rural areas of southeast iran

Background: domestic violence is the most common form of violence against women with the most social, psychological, and economic consequences. partner violence threatens the life of the family and society. objectives: the current study aimed to assess domestic violence against pregnant and non-pregnant women in urban and rural populations. methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted on 800 pregnant and non-pregnant women referring to urban and rural health centers in kerman, iran, in 2015 - 2016. the data were collected using a standardized violence questionnaire and analyzed using the one-way anova for normal variables and non-parametric test (kruskal-wallis) was used for non-normal variables. results: there were positive significant correlations between the spouse’s education level and physical violence (p = 0.003), sexual violence (p = 0.005), and injury caused by violence (p = 0.041). the residence place had no significant effect (p = 0.69) on the occurrence of physical violence. rural women experienced significantly more psychological violence, sexual violence, and violenceinduced injury than urban women (p = 0). generally, the overall violence was significantly higher in rural women than in urban women (p < 0.05). the most physical violence, psychological violence, sexual violence, and injury caused by violence were observed in rural non-pregnant women (p < 0.01). conclusions: rural women, especially non-pregnant ones, experienced greater violence than urban women. it suggests that pregnancy is a protective period that reduces the prevalence of violence. the spouse’ education level was a risk factor for committed violence. therefore, a comprehensive program for the prevention of violence against women and screening of violence in all health centers in the south of iran are proposed.