Authors
Julie Pulerwitz, Christina Misunas, Stephanie Psaki, Brady Zieman, Lusanda N Mahlasela, Mags Beksinska
Published in
Global public health. Volume 21. Issue 1. Pages 2716999. Dec 31, 2026. Epub Oct 02, 2026.
Abstract
Intimate partner violence (IPV) remains a widespread challenge in informal settlements, where poverty and unemployment are prevalent. The evidence for strategies to reduce IPV at the population level in such settings is limited. A stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial was conducted in 18 informal settlements in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, to evaluate the Asibonisane Community Responses (CR) program. The program included a ten-session Stepping Stones curriculum and community-wide HIV and IPV education. Four survey rounds were implemented with population-based samples of men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-24. The analytic sample comprised 549 women and 438 men in primary partnerships interviewed at least twice. At baseline, 22.8% of women reported physical IPV, 11.4% sexual IPV, and 21.3% emotional IPV; among men, 15.9% reported physical perpetration, 3.8% sexual, and 9.2% emotional. Intention-to-treat analysis showed significant reductions among women in emotional (aOR = 0.42, p < .001), physical (aOR = 0.70, p < .05), and sexual IPV (aOR = 0.27, p < .001), with similar reductions in the number and frequency of violent acts. Men reported decreases in emotional and physical IPV perpetration, though not sexual IPV. The findings demonstrate that multi-session community programming can reduce IPV in high-prevalence contexts, and that detailed tracking of multiple IPV forms helps capture meaningful progress toward population-level violence reduction.
PMID:
42826221
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 03 Oct 2026.
Read full publication at:
Please sign in
to see all details.
Advertisement
Stats
- Recommendations n/a n/a positive of 0 vote(s)
- Views 13
- Comments 0