Spouse Abuse among Women Referred to a Health Care Centers in Gorgan, 2008

Spouse abuse, which has physical and psychological consequences on victims, is one of the most important health problems in many countries. The purpose of the present study was to investigate wife abuse among the women referred to health care centers of Gorgan, 2008. The subjects of this descriptive analytical study were 300 married women selected by easy sampling. Data collection was performed by using "Spouse Abuse" questionnaire, consisting of 27 items which are related to emotional, physical and sexual domains. The validity was confirmed by faculty members and reliability by alpha cronbach (=0.86). The results show that wife Abuse is severe (6.5%), no report of Spouse Abuse (16.5%), sexual abuse (23%), physical punishment (54.5%), and psychological abuse (82.5%). The rate of Spouse Abuse is lower in younger couples. There is significant relationship between wife Abuse and the age of women, smoking and drug abuse of their husbands (P=0.000). All kind of wife abuse has devastating health effects on women well-being. Regarding the high rate of psychological abuse in relationships, it is necessary to consider marital counseling as a priority for mental health of families.