Gender Based Violence and Public Health Consequences among Refugees in Uganda

Purpose: The current study was undertaken to establish the influence of gender based violence on public health consequences among refugees in Uganda. The main objective was to ascertain the influence of gender based violence on public health consequences among refugees in Uganda. Materials and Methods: In an effort to address the set objective, a cross-sectional survey design which followed both quantitative and qualitative research approaches was adopted.  Quantitative and qualitative research approaches were used because they are complementary methods that work well together to provide insights that are both deep and wide. Data was collected from a total quantitative sample of 311 refugees. A qualitative sample of 68 of refugee stakeholders’ and officials from office of the Prime Minister in Uganda was determined by saturation point approach. The data was analysed at descriptive and inferential level, and later a Path Equation Model was fitted through Structural Equation Modelling in Stata Version 14.0. Findings: The key reference in the study is Sarfo-Kantankah, K. S. (2022), who avers that violence against women includes any act of verbal or physical force, coercion or life-threatening deprivation, directed at an individual woman or girl that causes physical or psychological harm, humiliation or arbitrary deprivation of liberty and that perpetuates female subordination. The overall result in regard to Gender Based Violence among refugees in selected refugee campcamp indicate that it is highly practiced (M = 5.32, SD = 0.88). The results also indicated exists there exists a positive significant influence of Gender Based violence on public health consequences of the refugees (r = 0.379). This relationship is statistically significant since the associated p – value of 0.000 is less than 0.05 (p< 0.001).  The study concluded that that sufficient evidence substantiates significant relationship exists between gender based violence and Public Health Consequences. Finally, the study reveals that the biggest numbers of refugees are semi illiterate and this makes them unable to access any viable source of income which may give them or expose them to gender based violence and the associated public health consequences which result or impact the society negatively. Therefore, equipping these refugees with some skills may help them to be preoccupied with economic activities which will eventually have an impact on their life styles and hence help to mitigate the challenge of gender based Violence.  Implications to Theory, Practice and Policy: The government and other refugees’ stakeholders should devise strategies to enhance the literacy levels such that the refugees may be able to understand and collaborate in not only reducing gender based violence but also be able to take decisions for which the refugee sector relies on.