International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | May 2018 | Vol 5 | Issue 5 Page 1742 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Shaukat N et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2018 May;5(5):1742-1749 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Detrimental effects of intimate partner violence on the nutritional status of children: insights from PDHS 2012-2013 Natasha Shaukat*, Meesha Iqbal, Muhammad Arslan Khan INTRODUCTION Endemicity of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women is established globally and is alarmingly high. One in every three women suffer from IPV at least once in her lifetime. 1 IPV is defined as, “a pattern of physical, sexual and/or psychological abuse by a person with whom the victim has had an intimate relationship”. 2 Its presence has been established worldwide, across nations, various settings, cultures, religions, class and creed, with the burden being higher in low and middle income countries. 1 A multi-center study conducted by World Health Organization (WHO) reported 30% global ever lifetime prevalence of IPV. 3 While the rates of violence may differ across the nations, their health consequences are similar. It has both acute and long-term effects on physical, mental and ABSTRACT Background: Endemicity of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women is established globally. Children are directly dependent on mothers for care and nourishment. Literature has shown inconsistent association between IPV and nutritional status of children, and no nationwide study has been conducted in Pakistan to test this association. Thus, we aimed to do a secondary data analysis on Pakistan Demographic Health Survey (PDHS 2012-13) to explore the association of IPV and the nutritional status of children. Methods: This secondary data analysis was conducted on nationally representative data of PDHS 2012-13. All four provinces, including Islamabad Capital Territory and Gilgit Baltistan districts were taken, and two stage stratified random sampling was performed. The conflict tactics scale (CTS) was used to quantify Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), and its emotional and physical dimensions. Results: This study included mother-child dyads (n=1851) who completed the domestic violence module in PDHS. The lifetime prevalence of intimate partner violence was almost 40% among married women of reproductive age group. About 20% of women reported emotional violence and 2.5% women reported physical violence only. However, 16% of the women reported having suffered from both emotional and physical violence. Women who suffered from emotional violence had children with significantly higher odds of being underweight (OR, 95% CI: 1.57, 1.04-2.36) and stunted (OR, 95% CI: 1.54, 1.05-2.24) respectively. IPV was not found to be significantly associated with occurrence of wasting in children. Conclusions: Policy implications towards this issue call for establishing programmes and laws to protect women and children from the detrimental effects of violence. Provision of initiatives which focus on women autonomy and empowerment via increased access to education and economic opportunities. Keywords: Intimate partner violence, Nutritional status, Domestic violence, Pakistan, Malnutrition Department of Community Health Sciences, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan Received: 10 December 2017 Revised: 21 January 2018 Accepted: 23 January 2018 *Correspondence: Dr. Natasha Shaukat, E-mail: natashafaysal@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20181680