Covid-19 and Intimate Partner Violence in Africa

Purpose: The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic in 2020. Several countries responded by putting different measures in place to manage the pandemic, including lockdowns and mandatory stay-at-home orders. A mini pandemic within a pandemic is Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) which largely increases during a pandemic. This mixed-methods systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to estimate the prevalence and identify the predictors of IPV among married/cohabiting people in Africa during the COVID-19 lockdown. Methods: Six databases were searched for published papers, namely, PubMed, PubMed Central, MEDLINE via OVID, EMBASE, Global Health, and Web of Science from December 2019 to November 9th, 2021. The socioecological framework and other relevant theories, such as female bargaining and male backlash theory, were used to present and discuss the findings. Results: The pooled prevalence of any violence in Africa was 13.89% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 9.19-18.58%) among 4967 married/cohabiting individuals, with the highest in Ethiopia, 24.6% (95% CI: 21.55-27.65%) and the lowest also in Ethiopia (7.11%; 95% CI: 5.11-9.11%). The pooled estimate of sexual violence, physical violence, psychological violence, and economic violence was 4.08% (95% CI: 2.23-5.93%), 6.46% (95% CI: 3.55-9.38%), 16.15% (95% CI: 12.60-19.69%), and 4.40 (95% CI: 3.07-5.73%), respectively. Qualitative findings revealed that IPV was common in homes with pre-COVID-19 violence, financial/food insecurity, and higher demand for sex. Conclusions: IPV affected women primarily, with younger women, pregnant women, and women whose husbands use substances more likely to experience IPV