Abstract:

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is traditionally viewed in the context of men as being the perpetrators of violence against women, the victims. Reports of female perpetrated violence against men living with HIV are relatively few in the literature. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study that utilized an interviewer-administered questionnaire to identify the reasons for IPV and help-seeking response to IPV among 322 men living with HIV in Birnin Kudu, Jigawa state, Nigeria. Data were analyzed using SPSS. The prevalence of IPV among men in the study period was 45% (145/322). Out of the 145 respondents that experienced IPV in the year preceding the survey, 72 (49.7%) felt the IPV was related to domestic problems, 70 (48.3%) ascribed it to the disclosure of their HIV status, while 48 (33.1%) attributed it to ‘poor upbringing’ on the part of their spouse. About a third of the respondents (n= 51; 35.2%) did not report the incident to anyone; out of those that reported the incident, 94 (64.8%) sought help from informal and formal sources, 48 (51.1%) sought help from their in-laws, and 37 (39.4%) sought help from healthcare workers. Domestic problems, disclosure of HIV status, and poor upbringing of the female perpetrators were the commonest reasons for IPV as perceived by the respondents. The majority of the victims sought help from their in-laws and healthcare workers following the episodes of IPV directed at them. Efforts should be made to screen HIV-positive men for IPV during visits to ART clinics.

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