Title: Prevalence and factors associated with Intimate Partner Violence among women in
Tanzania: Evidence from Tanzanian Demographic and Health Survey 2022
Version: 1 Date: 04 Sep 2024
Reviewer's report:
Thank you for writing this manuscript "Prevalence and factors associated with Intimate Partner
Violence among women in Tanzania: Evidence from Tanzanian Demographic and Health
Survey 2022." My observations and suggestions for improvement are presented below:
ABSTRACT
Background: sentence two – “Despite the existence of legal frameworks aimed at protecting
women's rights, IPV persists.”
• “…IPV persists in Tanzania.”
Sentence five, “This study is timely for addressing this gap by determining the prevalence and
factors associated with Intimate Partner Violence among women in Tanzania.”
• Intimate Partner Violence = IPV, already defined in the first sentence.
Method:  second sentence, “A weighted sample of 4503 women aged 15-49 years was used.”
• Ever-married or ever partnered?
Results: First sentence, “The overall prevalence IPV…”
• “The overall prevalence of IPV…”
In the other sentences of the results, there is no full stop anywhere to separate the sentences.
Please check punctuations and ensure that the message is clear.
AoR should be written as aOR and be defined earlier adjusted odds ratio (aOR).
“The multivariable logistic regression results revealed factors significantly associated
with IPV were age 35-49 years (AoR;0.8, 95% CI: 0.5, 1.3),secondary education
and beyond (AoR;0.7,95%CI:0.5,0.9) parity between 1-4 (AoR;0.9,95%CI:0.6,1.3),
Southernzone(AoR;0.4,95%CI:1.5,3.9),richhouseholds(AoR;0.6,95%CI:0.3,0.5),husband/
partner with secondary and beyond education (AoR;0.8,95%CI:0.6,1.1)lower odds of IPV,”
o The aORs in the above are less than 1. Therefore, the interpretation is not correct that they
are significantly associated with IPV.
o Results on age group of women, place of residence, parity, wealth index, husband/partner with
secondary and beyond education are not statistically significant (see Table 3) but have been
interpreted as though they are.
Which factors were associated with IPV? Which factors were protective of IPV?
• Since the study aimed to determine the factors associated with Intimate Partner Violence, you
need to start with the factors associated with and the end with those protective of IPV.
Conclusion: “The government should implement community-based educational programs to
raise awareness about IPV and promoting gender equality while special focus should be given
to rural areas where traditional norms may perpetuate violence.”
• In the results section above, you stated “Those from rural areas (AoR;1.2,95%CI:0.9, 1.5),
working (AoR;1.4,95%CI:1.2,1.7), whose husband/partner drinks alcohol (AoR;2.9,95%CI:
2.4, 3.5) had higher odds of IPV compared to their counterparts.”
• What is the basis of the recommendation?
o As indicated earlier, place of residence is not statistically significant (see Table 3) but has been
interpreted as though it is.
INTRODUCTION
Paragraph one: “IPV encompasses any physical, sexual, or psychological injury that develops
by a current or past partner (3).”
• It shouldn’t be ‘develops.’
“According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one-third of women worldwide have
encountered physical or sexual abuse from their partner at a point in their lifetimes, highlighting
the extent of this problem (5).”
• IPV is on all three forms of violence; physical, sexual and emotional
Paragraph 3: “Studies in Tanzania reported inconsistencies the prevalence and factors associated
with  IPV among women (13,14).”
• Sentence is incomplete
The introduction needs to be strengthened. The focus of the study should be adequately covered
including definition of IPV in this study (is the study looking at ever experience of IPV or IPV
in the past 12 months?); literature on prevalence in the region (e.g. neighbouring countries) and
Tanzania compares, effects of IPV, etc.
• What policies and programmes exist in Tanzania to curb IPV?
• What are the national, regional and global relevance of the study?
METHODOLOGY
Study design
Paragraph is too long. The paragraph has mixed a lot of things including data source and
sampling design.
Please have specific standalone subheadings addressing aspects such as:
• Study setting
• Study design and population
• Data source, sampling design and procedure
• Sample Size
• Study Variables
o Dependent variable
o Independent variables
“The interviews were done with all women and men aged 15 to 49 years who were regular
residents or visitors sleeping in the selected households the night before the survey.”
• The sentence needs to be clarified on what the authors are trying to communicate here.
Individual interviews are only conducted after administering the household schedule, because
it is from this that eligible men and women are identified.
• Are the men interviewed 15-49 years?
“Participation in the survey was voluntary and all participants provided ethical consent prior to
data collection and a detailed description of the survey is documented elsewhere (19).”
• Participation in the survey was voluntary and all participants provided informed consent
prior to the start and during the interview. A detailed description of the survey methodology is
documented elsewhere (19).
Women interviewed on the domestic violence (DV) module are a subsample of all women
interviewed on all other topics. Kindly ensure that this is explained on the relevant section.
Number of women interviewed on all other topics, number eligible for the DV module, number
successfully interviewed, etc., your study inclusion and exclusion criteria, and final sample size
for this study. A diagram might be useful.
Dependent and independent variables
Dependent variable
“The variable was composed by combining the three forms of PV (physical, sexual and
emotional).”
• The variable IPV was generated by combining the three forms of violence (physical, sexual
and emotional).
“The categorical variable was coded (0) for no if no any form of violence and coded (1) for yes
if there is any form of violence.”
• IPV was generated as a binary variable, coded 0 for no, if woman had [ever] experienced any
form of violence from a husband/partner, and coded 1 for yes, if woman had [ever] experienced
any form of violence from a husband/partner.
What is not stated is: the perpetrator of the IPV? Are you looking at ever experience of IPV or
it is in the last 12 months?
Independent variables
What is the rationale for categorising these variables the way you did as some categories are too
broad. Did preliminary results show no differences in the combined categories?
• age (categorized in three agree- groups,15-24,25-35, and 36-49)?
• educational level (primary and below and secondary and beyond)?
• parity(0,1-4, and 5-17)?
• husband’s characteristics including age categorized in four agree-groups,15-24,25-35, 36-49
and 50+), education level (primary and below and secondary and beyond)?
Marital status (in union/not in union)
• What do you by not in union? Be clear to differentiate the formerly married from the never
married. If these are formerly married women, write it is as such.
“husband’s characteristics including age categorized in four agree-groups,15-24,25-35, 36-49
and 50+), education level (primary and below and secondary and beyond) and use of alcohol
(drinking/not drinking alcohol).”
• agree-groups = age groups
“These variables have been used in other similar studies and they showed to significantly related
to the outcome variable of ever experienced IPV in lifetime among women (20,21).”
• These are only two studies. The study reference 21, was a qualitative study. Could there be a
mix up in the referencing because this cannot be basis of making broad categories.
• Results need to be comparable with many other studies.
Data analysis
“….and all variables were weighted to account for the complex survey design.”
• Rephrase the sentence above so that it is clear on how weighting is applied.
• Ensure that you explain the kind of weighting done, and why it is/ was done; different
weights are applied depending on what you are dealing with: women on other topics, and
different weighting for domestic violence. Also indicate the levels of statistical analysis at which
weighting was done.
“Descriptive analysis using univariate model was conducted to provide distribution in terms of
percent and frequency of individual and community variables involved in the study.”
• What community variables are included in the study?
“Before qualifying to be entered in the multivariable model, all the variables were tested for
multi-collinearity to ensure the variables do not interact to each other. Worth noting that, age of
the woman and age of her husband were correlated but due to their importance in the Tanzanian
context, all the two variables were maintained.”
• You cannot keep both variables. Consider creating from the two, a variable ‘spousal age
difference’ so that you will only have one variable on age.
RESULTS
Demographic health characteristics of the respondents
• Check the subheading and revise accordingly.
Table 1: Demographic health characteristics of the respondents using TDHS 2022
• Check the table title and revise accordingly.
• The N=4,503 on the same variable should be kept to the bottom of the table.
Factors associated with IPV among women of reproductive age
“Of them, 36.8% of 15-24 age-group, 38.1% of 25-35 age-group and 41.3% of 36-49 age-group
with ever experienced any of the three forms of violence, however there was not significant
differences among age-groups as age was not significantly associated IPV.”
• Not all results on a variable should be narrated.
• Replace ‘Of them’
Table 2: Binary model showing the association between the woman’s socio-demographic factors
and IPV using TDHS 2022
• Replace ‘showing’ with ‘of’
• The results in this table appear to be those of the Chi square test.
• Correct this “Age-groupshusb2”; May-17
“As indicated in Table.3; After controlling for other variables in the adjusted logistic regression,
women aged (35-49 years) had 0.8 time (AoR;0.8, 95% CI: 0.5, 1.3) lower odds to experience
any form of violence compared to those aged 15-24 years.”
• Result is not statistically significant.
• Check how the sentence is starting and revise accordingly.
“Table 3: Multivariable logistic regression showing factors associated with IPV among Women
aged 15-49 years in Tanzania using TDHS 2022”
• Replace ‘showing’ with ‘of’
• What is the difference between this wealth index and wealth quintile?
• Properly format tables
o Ensure separate rows for variable name and reference category respectively.
o Increase number of decimal places
o Results on age group of women, residing in rural areas, parity, wealth index, husband/partner
with secondary and beyond education are not statistically significant (see Table 3). Therefore,
ensure that the interpretation is not misleading.
No results for bivariate logistic regression presented.
DISCUSSION
The discussion needs to be strengthened. In some paragraphs, instead of explaining reasons for
the study’s findings, there are more of the recommendations. In addition, some reasons given
lack empirical evidence (supporting literature).
More comparison of results with SSA and Eastern Africa countries, whose results may differ
because these have combined several countries (large sample size) in the statistical analysis
compared with one country’s sample size.
• Consider country specific results from the regions.
In addition, results on age group of women, residing in rural areas, parity, wealth index, husband/
partner with secondary and beyond education are not statistically significant (see Table 3).
Therefore, ensure that the interpretation and conclusion is not misleading.
Paragraph one: “Using the secondary data from the most recently THDS we investigated the
prevalence and factors associated with IPV among women of reproductive age 15-49 years in
Tanzania.”
• “Using the secondary data from the most recent THDS, we investigated the prevalence and
factors associated with IPV among women of reproductive age in Tanzania.”
Paragraph one: “Compared to previous studies carried in Tanzania it is slightly lower compared
to previous study conducted in Tanzania using 2015 DHS data which was 49.05 %, the latter
study included 11 countries found in Eastern Africa reported the collective IPV prevalence of
43.7% IPV across the countries (22).”
• “This prevalence is slightly lower compared to previous study conducted in Tanzania using
2015 TDHS data (49.05%), and another study of 11 Eastern African countries which found an
IPV prevalence of 43.7% across the countries (22).”
Paragraph one: “Additionally, in another study utilizing DHS data from 26 countries in SSA,
reported the prevalence of IPV ranges from 10.8% in Comoros to 59.9% in Sierra Leone (23)
(24). Strengths and limitations of the study.”
• The connection is missing. Sentence not clear.
Paragraph one last sentence, “The current study’s findings….. ”
Paragraph one: what could be the reason for your study’s findings?
Paragraph two: “In the logistics regression not in union, …”
• Is it the bivariate or multivariate logistics regression?
Paragraph two: belonging to the working class – use the wording in the tables and definition
of variables.
• Proposal: “In the ……. logistics regression, women who were formerly married, residing in
rural areas, not currently working, ….., ……”
Paragraph two: “Conversely, factors such as being aged 35–49,..”
• “Conversely, factors such as a women being 35–49 years of age, ….., belonging to a rich
wealth status, ..”
Paragraph two: These results have not been discussed.
Paragraph three: “This finding are consistence’s…”
• “This finding is consistent…..” check the rest of the paragraph.
Paragraph three: “For instance, a study that involved multiple countries located in SSA and
another in eastern Africa countries reported that the odds of rural women experience IPV
increased by 1.5 and 1.2 respectively among rural women (27).”
• This sentence is not clear.
Paragraph three: “…..gender roles are prevalence in rural area (4), denied access to education
among … IPV awareness among both gender…”
• Replace the second ‘gender’ with ‘sex’
• Use ‘limited’ in place of ‘denied’
o “……gender roles are prevalent in rural areas (4), limited access to education among ……..
IPV awareness among both sexes….”
• The rest of the sentence has no supporting literature.
• contradicting and not contracting
Paragraph four: “Women not living in union had two times higher odds of experiencing IPV
than those who are lining in union.”
• Delete ‘not living’ and ‘lining’
o “Women no longer in marital union had two times higher odds of experiencing IPV than those
who in marital union.”
Paragraph four: there is need for supporting literature of the given reasons for the findings.
• Also provide more reasons for your study’ findings as the reason given is not sufficient.
Paragraph five: “Similar to prior study recommendation we encourage implementing
community level educational workshop tailor to partner to enhance dialogue and education about
IPV, Provide supportive network and resources for women, and. gradually shift cultural attitudes
and norms around IPV (24,28).”
• Ensure the sentence is clear; separately one sentence from the other.
Paragraph six: “..align with our current research, which also indicates that men who consume
alcohol are twice as likely to engage in IPV.”
• Revise the sentence to reflect what was measured and correct reporting….women whose
husband/partner consumed alcohol were twice likely to have experienced IPV compared with
women whose husband/partner did not consume alcohol.
• The authors talk more the recommendations without explaining why such much men are likely
to perpetrate IPV.
Paragraph seven, eight, and ten: There is need for supporting literature of the given reasons for
the findings.
Paragraph 11:  There is need for supporting literature of the given reasons for the findings.
• Also provide more reasons for your study’ findings as the reason given is not sufficient.
Paragraph 12: “Women with higher wealth status….. .”
• “Women belonging to richer households…”
• The wealth status is for the household and not the woman alone. As such, ensure that the
interpretation of findings is done appropriately.
Paragraph 13: “A study in sub-Saharan Africa reported that women with two or more children
were more likely to use contraception, suggesting that parity may empower women and reduce
their vulnerability to IPV (39).”
• How does contraceptive use fit in this discussion?
Paragraph 14: “This finding could be suggesting that having enough food in the family may
reduce IPV against women as some women experience IPV when a man miss food or request
cash from their men for buying food (25,26).”
• Revise the sentence to ensure that it is clear.
Strengths and limitations of the study
Correct the subheading to “Strengths and limitations of the study”
“This current study utilized data from 2022 TDHS which employed a robust methods and
international validated questions to capture health state of the population at a particular point
in time.”
• It is not clear how this benefits the study you undertook.
• The survey does not only capture health indicators, but also demographic indicators.
“Therefore, due to cross-sectional nature of the study design, we were not able to determine the
causal effect relationship between variables.”
• “Therefore” shouldn’t be at the start of this sentence.
You can provide more information on the strengths and limitations of the study.
Conclusion
• “…belonging to the working class,..” = being in employment
• partner = husband/partner
• aged 35–49 = 35-49 years old
• having higher wealth status = belonging to richer households
List of abbreviations is missing
Declarations
This should follow the order given below:
• Ethics approval and consent to participate
• Consent for publication
• Availability of data and materials
• Competing interests
• Funding
• Authors' contributions
• Acknowledgements
• Authors' information
Other comments/suggestions
• Ensure to have well formatted tables.
• Proofread your manuscript thoroughly.
o There is need to ensure correct punctuations, grammar, removal of obvious spelling typos, etc
to avoid this affecting meaning the content of sentences.