Violence against Women and Depression in Rural Ethiopia

Negussie Deyessa, Public Health
Yemane Berhane, Public Health
Atalay Alem, Addis Ababa University
Mary Ellsberg, Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH)
Ulf Hogberg, Umea University
Gunnar Kulgren, Umea University

Though it is well known that depression is twice as common in women as in men, there is still no adequate research work to show how violence against women contribute to the increase in rates of depression among women. We want to assess whether violence against women could independently contribute to the difference in depressive episode between women and men. The study was conducted among 2661 randomly selected women of child bearing age of Butajira district, Ethiopia. Composite International Diagnostic Interview was used to identify cases of depressive episode F32, ICD-10, and a standardized questionnaire to find violence against women. Logistic regression was made to examine independent effects of violence against women in predicting depressive episode. The likelihood of experiencing depressive episode was higher among women who experienced physical violence. Thus we recommend researchers to explore for future work on the transduction of violence against women into depressive episode.