Associations of intimate partner violence with screening for mental health disorders among women in urban Bangladesh

Objectives: We examined the association between intimate partner violence (IPV) and screening for depression in Bangladesh, a country with high prevalence of IPV and lack of data, awareness and provider infrastructure for mental illness. Methods: We used data from a representative sample of 11,202 women from the 2006 Bangladesh Urban Health Survey. Elements of social learning theory were used to examine the association. Additionally, we examined the interaction effect of experiencing IPV and justification of IPV on screening for mental health disorders. Results: Results indicate that women who experienced IPV were significantly more likely to be screened for mental health disorders (AOR = 2.09; 95% CI = 1.86–2.34). However, the direction of this association is reversed for women who justify various forms of IPV to varying degrees. Conclusions: These findings reflect the importance of how women’s perception of violence may influence their mental health. Our results indicate a counter-intuitive association, given that we found that women’s justification of IPV is adaptive for them in terms of preventing symptoms of mental health problems and have potential to inform future public health policy and research.