Pregnancy, alcohol intake, and intimate partner violence among men and women attending drinking establishments in a Cape Town, South Africa township.
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2012-02
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The highest rates of fetal alcohol syndrome worldwide can be found in South Africa. Particularly in impoverished townships in the Western Cape, pregnant women live in environments where alcohol intake during pregnancy has become normalized and interpersonal violence (IPV) is reported at high rates. For the current study we sought to examine how pregnancy, for both men and women, is related to alcohol use behaviors and IPV. We surveyed 2,120 men and women attending drinking establishments in a township located in the Western Cape of South Africa. Among women 13.3% reported being pregnant, and among men 12.0% reported their partner pregnant. For pregnant women, 61% reported attending the bar that evening to drink alcohol and 26% reported both alcohol use and currently experiencing IPV. Daily or almost daily binge drinking was reported twice as often among pregnant women than non-pregnant women (8.4% vs. 4.2%). Men with pregnant partners reported the highest rates of hitting sex partners, forcing a partner to have sex, and being forced to have sex. High rates of alcohol frequency, consumption, binge drinking, consumption and binge drinking were reported across the entire sample. In general, experiencing and perpetrating IPV were associated with alcohol use among all participants except for men with pregnant partners. Alcohol use among pregnant women attending shebeens is alarmingly high. Moreover, alcohol use appears to be an important factor in understanding the relationship between IPV and pregnancy. Intensive, targeted, and effective interventions for both men and women are urgently needed to address high rates of drinking alcohol among pregnant women who attend drinking establishments.
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Eaton, Lisa A, Seth C Kalichman, Kathleen J Sikkema, Donald Skinner, Melissa H Watt, Desiree Pieterse and Eileen V Pitpitan (2012). Pregnancy, alcohol intake, and intimate partner violence among men and women attending drinking establishments in a Cape Town, South Africa township. J Community Health, 37(1). pp. 208–216. 10.1007/s10900-011-9438-7 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/6062.
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Melissa Watt
Dr. Watt's research focuses on understanding and addressing gender-specific health issues in sub-Saharan Africa, with specific attention to HIV, substance use and mental health. In Tanzania, she currently leads an implementation science study aimed at improving access to long-term antiretroviral therapy for pregnant women with HIV. In South Africa, she is collaborating with Dr. Kathleen Sikkema on a study to support HIV care engagement in the context of sexual trauma. In Ghana, she is supporting a team of DGHI graduate students in Global Health to examine the impact of community health workers on the uptake of family planning. Completed research includes the development and evaluation of mental health treatment for women with obstetric fistula in Tanzania, prevention of alcohol-exposed pregnancies in South Africa, and understanding HIV risk behaviors among individuals who use methamphetamine in South Africa.
Dr. Watt directs the Master of Science in Global Health at DGHI and serves as the Associate Director for the Social and Behavioral Sciences Core of the Duke Center for AIDS Research. She has a Ph.D. in Health Behavior from the University of North Carolina, and an M.A. in Gender and Development from the University of Sussex in the U.K.
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