Abstract 1443P
Background
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a critical problem worldwide. The subject remains a taboo especially in Arab countries were reported IPV prevalence ranged from 6% to 59%. Data about the combination of IPV and cancer is missing. The aim of the present study was to measure the frequency and types of IPV among patients with cancer and evaluate risk factors.
Methods
The study was a cross sectional, questionnaire-based study, conducted between January and April 2022, including 141 patients treated with cancer regardless of gender, site, or stage. We developed the study questionnaire by adapting items from the “WHO multi-country questionnaire on violence against women” and “The Women’s Experiences with Battering Scale”. Odds ratio (OR) and Spearman tests were performed to assess the impact of several factors associated with the reported IPV.
Results
Median age was 50.8 yo, 38.3% were male cancer patients. Patient reported to have a highschool or university educational level (EL) in 76% and a stable job at the moment of the study in 49%. IPV prevalence was 24.8%, we observed 5 cases of torture (3%). The most common forms of violence were: placing severe restriction on certain types of food in 21% of cases, psychological violence (absence of kindness and critsism) in 20%, exposing intimate information about the patient health status in 17%, ignoring and not speaking to the patient in 13.5%, putting restrictions on visiting relatives in 9.2%, verbal assault in 9.2%, physical violence in 7.9%. There was no difference in the incidence of IPV neither in the forms of violence between man and women. The only difference of reported IPV forms between man and women was “divorce threats”, observed in 9% of women vs 0% in man (p=0.02). We observed a significant correlation between IPV prevalence and disease stage (34.6% M1 vs 19.1% M0, p=0,04, OR=2.2 [1-4.8]), patient’s EL (48.5% none-primary school vs 17.6%, p=0.01, OR= 4.4 [1.8-10.2]) and being under cancer therapy (30.9% vs 11.4%, p=0.013, OR=3.4 [1.2-9.7]).
Conclusions
Patients were shown to be victims of several forms of IPV regardless of gender and highly correlated with a low educational level and disease stage. Implementation of both; intervention strategies to take care of victims and preventive strategies supporting patients and their partners is needed.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
Boussen Hamouda.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.