Prevalence and pattern of gender based violence as seen at Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja, North Central Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Gender based violence (GBV) is any abuse directed at an individual based on his/her biological sex, identity or perceived adherence to socially defined expectations. GBV has been shown to pose a global health problem and many cases go unreported especially in developing countries. Knowledge of the pattern of GBV can help to formulate appropriate preventive measures and proffer solutions to many dangerous practices aggravating this problem in the society.

Methods: This is a hospital based, cross sectional descriptive study of all consenting patients with GBV that presented at Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Lokoja between September 2017 and August 2018. Data was collected with interviewer-administered structured questionnaire and analysed with SPSS version 21 computer software.

Results: Out of a total of 3089 patients which were seen during the study period, 278 of them had features of GBV. Therefore, the prevalence of GBV at the study centre was 9.0%. GBV was found to be commonest within the age range of 20 to 29 years (38.5%) and most of them were females (95.7%). Sexual violence was the commonest type of GBV experienced by the respondents in the study population (65.2%) followed by physical violence (53.3%). The most common clinical feature was pain (74.1%). Other complaints include: bruises (29.9%), facial swelling (19.4%), lacerations (13.3%) and bleeding (12.6%).

Conclusion: Both men and women experience GBV but majority of GBV survivors were females. The commonest type of GBV among the respondents was sexual violence. Pain, bruises, facial swelling, lacerations and bleeding were the most common clinical features.

Keywords: Gender, violence, abuse, rape, survivors