Vol. 68, No. 12, December 2018 Introduction According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), violence is defined as the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, mal-development, or deprivation. 1 Domestic violence has been defined as threat to members of the family by using either physical or psychological force. 2 The typology of domestic violence can be further sub-grouped as forcing to have sexual intercourse or doing other activities, restriction from meeting family or friends, restraining from work or school, or insulting. 3 Domestic violence is observed in all varieties of human societies independent of educational, religious, economic or cultural backgrounds. 4 The proportion of ever- partnered women who had ever experienced physical or sexual violence, or both, by an intimate partner in their lifetime, ranged from 15% to 71%, with most sites falling between 29% and 62%. 1 Also in Turkey, violence against women is relatively common with lifetime physical or sexual abuse reported by women as 41.9%. 5 Biological, psychological as well as social reasons have been blamed in the aetiology of domestic violence. 6 The current study was planned to assess the prevalence and risk factors of domestic violence in a multi-cultural region of Turkey and to look for the distribution of risk factors in this specific population. Our primaryhypothesis was that there is no difference in exposure to domestic violence concerning demographic factors. Subjects and Methods The cross-sectional study was conducted in the Tepecik district of Izmir, Turkey, from February to June 2013. Women aged 15 years or above were included in the study. An address-based simple random sampling method was utilised. The list of families living in the district was obtained from the local governor (mukhtar). Two physicians, one male and one female, visited each address to ensure privacy and ease of responding. All women in the household meeting the inclusion criteria were invited to participate. Sample size calculation was based on the main outcome variable which was history of domestic violence. We needed 298 cases to detect a difference in domestic violence history between five ethnic groups (degree of freedom= 4) with an alpha error of 5%, effect size of 0.25 (medium), and a power of 95%. 7 After adjusting for cluster effect with a constant of 1.5, the sample size stood at 447. The primary outcome variable of the study was “history of domestic violence”. Other variables studied were 1782 RESEARCH ARTICLE Ethnic background and alcohol use of the spouse emerge as major risk factors for domestic violence: An observational study from Turkey Yusuf Adnan Guclu, 1 Huseyin Can 2 Abstract Objective: To assess the prevalence and risk factors of domestic violence in a multi-cultural region of Turkey. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted in Tepecik district of Izmir, Turkey, from February to June 2013, and comprised women aged 15 years or above. A 21-item questionnaire was used to collect data through interviews. The primary outcome variable was history of domestic violence. Results: There were 602 subjects with a mean age of 42.8±14.3 years. The mean age of spouses was 45.5±13.4 and the mean marriage duration was 19.6±4.4 years. The prevalence of any kind of violence within the preceding month was reported by 355(59%) women. Alcohol use of spouse had an odds ratio of 2.7 compared with non-users (p=0.007). Compared with Turkish background, Kurds had a 3.2-fold risk of being exposed to violence within the preceding year (p=0.010). Conclusion: Independent of other demographic factors, race and alcohol use of the spouse were important factors in domestic violence. Keywords: Domestic violence, Women health, Ethnic origin, Alcohol use. (JPMA 68: 1782; 2018) 1 Tepecik Education and Research Hospital Family Medicine Clinic, 2 Izmir Katip Celebi University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine, Izmir, Turkey. Correspondence: Yusuf Adnan Guclu. Email: yusufadnangucluailem@gmail.com