Flood exposure and intimate partner violence in low- and middle-income countries

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global public health challenge, causing physical and psychological harm to victims. Although studies have explored the impacts of various extreme weather events on IPV, there is still inadequate evidence on the association between flood exposure and IPV on a multi-country or global scale. Therefore, we utilized the Demographic and Health Surveys database to examine this association on a multi-country scale and further explored modification effects of inequality outside and within the household. This study included 340,955 ever-partnered women from 31 low- and middle-income countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America. The results showed that flood exposure was associated with increased prevalence of total IPV (percentage difference 10.78%, 95% confidence interval 8.24–13.38%), physical violence (4.94%, 2.31–7.64%), sexual violence (13.03%, 8.61–17.62%) and emotional violence (17.62%, 14.28–21.06%). We found stronger flood–IPV associations among household with greater inequality. Our findings indicate additional harm associated with flood exposure for women in low- and middle-income countries, emphasizing the role of gender inequality under climate change. Flood exposure can increase the risk of intimate partner violence. Intra-household and societal gender inequalities can further exacerbate this vulnerability.