A pilot study on the prevalence of domestic violence against male partners of pregnant women in Hong Kong

Abstract

Objective: To study the prevalence of domestic violence against male partners of pregnant women in Hong Kong. Methods: A pilot study using a modified questionnaire adapted from the Abuse Assessment Screen was performed on 100 male partners who were requested to go to our clinic for blood taking because their pregnant partners were found to have low mean corpuscular volume (MCV) in the thalassaemia screening programme. Socio-demographic factors were compared between the abused and non-abused groups using Student's t-test and Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test as appropriate. Results: One hundred men were interviewed. Thirteen of them had a history of abuse. Eight men had been abused in recent one year. Five men had been abused during the current pregnancy of their female partners. One man said that he had been sexually abused three times by a stranger in recent one year. Twenty men said that their female partners had refused to have sex with them in recent one year. The intimate female partner was the perpetrator in the majority of cases. The nature of abuse was limited to verbal, slapping or pushing without any injury. Conclusion: Thirteen percent of male partners of pregnant women had been abused. Research on domestic violence should not be focused only on female victims.