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Conflict and Health
Published in: Conflict and Health 1/2018

Open Access 01-12-2018 | Research

Armed conflict, alcohol misuse, decision-making, and intimate partner violence among women in Northeastern Uganda: a population level study

Authors: Jennifer J. Mootz, Florence Kyoheirwe Muhanguzi, Pavel Panko, Patrick Onyango Mangen, Milton L. Wainberg, Ilana Pinsky, Kaveh Khoshnood

Published in: Conflict and Health | Issue 1/2018

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Abstract

Background

Relations among and interactions between exposure to armed conflict, alcohol misuse, low socioeconomic status, gender (in)equitable decision-making, and intimate partner violence (IPV) represent serious global health concerns. Our objective was to determine extent of exposure to these variables and test pathways between these indicators of interest.

Methods

We surveyed 605 women aged 13 to 49 who were randomly selected via multistage sampling across three districts in Northeastern Uganda in 2016. We used Mplus 7.4 to estimate a moderated structural equation model of indirect pathways between armed conflict and intimate partner violence for currently partnered women (n = 558) to evaluate the strength of the relationships between the latent factors and determine the goodness-of-fit of the proposed model with the population data.

Results

Most respondents (88.8%) experienced conflict-related violence. The lifetime/ past 12 month prevalence of experiencing intimate partner violence was 65.3%/ 50.9% (psychological) and 59.9%/ 43.8% (physical). One-third (30.7%) of women’s partners reportedly consumed alcohol daily. The relative fit of the structural model was superior (CFI = 0.989; TLI = 0.989). The absolute fit (RMSEA = 0.029) closely matched the population data. The partner and joint decision-making groups significantly differed on the indirect effect through partner alcohol use (a1b1 = 0.209 [0.017: 0.467]).

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that male partner alcohol misuse is associated with exposure to armed conflict and intimate partner violence—a relationship moderated by healthcare decision-making. These findings encourage the extension of integrated alcohol misuse and intimate partner violence policy and emergency humanitarian programming to include exposure to armed conflict and gendered decision-making practices.
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Metadata
Title
Armed conflict, alcohol misuse, decision-making, and intimate partner violence among women in Northeastern Uganda: a population level study
Authors
Jennifer J. Mootz
Florence Kyoheirwe Muhanguzi
Pavel Panko
Patrick Onyango Mangen
Milton L. Wainberg
Ilana Pinsky
Kaveh Khoshnood
Publication date
01-12-2018
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Conflict and Health / Issue 1/2018
Electronic ISSN: 1752-1505
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13031-018-0173-x

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