(P07-005-25) Associations Between Intimate Partner Violence, Depression, Perceived Stress, and Child Growth

Objectives: A parent’s psychosocial health may contribute to their child’s early life nutritional status. Our study investigated the potential associations between intimate partner violence (IPV), maternal depression, and parental perceived stress with child growth [length-for-age z-scores (LAZ) and weight-for-length z-scores (WLZ)].

Methods: In a substudy of the WASH Benefits trial conducted in rural Bangladesh, IPV was measured using a WHO survey. We also used the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale Revised and the Perceived Stress Scale. Growth outcomes were measured in 1521 children at ages 3, 14, and 28 months. We used multivariate linear regressions adjusted for confounders prescreened via likelihood ratio tests.

Results: 57% of women reported having had exposure to IPV during their lifetime, and 23% reported having depressive symptoms. The mean perceived stress scale score was 13.9 for women and 18.3 for men, indicative of moderate stress levels. At age 28 months, we found no significant associations between IPV and LAZ (0 (95% CI -0.12, 0.11, p=1.0; depressive symptoms and LAZ (0 (95% CI 0, 0.01), p=0.7); maternal stress and LAZ (0 (-0.01, 0.01), p=0.9; and paternal stress and LAZ (-0.01 (-0.02, 0), p=0.3). A secondary analysis assessing frequency of IPV against a reference level of never having been exposed to IPV and child growth found no associations.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that IPV, maternal depression, and parental perceived stress were not associated with child linear and ponderal growth. Previous studies report mixed findings. Potential explanations for discrepancies between our results and those of prior studies include differences in exposure measurements and covariate adjustments. Our unexpected findings highlight the importance of further investigating psychosocial health in the context of child undernutrition, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, where assessing IPV presents significant challenges and the prevalence of undernutrition is high.

Funding Sources: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and NIH/NIAID