Violence against women with hearing disabilities in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia

Background
Domestic violence (DV) against women seriously threatens global women’s health and human rights. DV is a serious problem for females in general and has a higher incidence among women with disabilities.

Objectives
This study aimed to explore the prevalence and associated factors of domestic violence (DV) against women with hearing disabilities in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

Material and methods
A descriptive cross-sectional research design was utilised to recruit a convenience sample of all deaf and hard of hearing female participants (87) from Tabuk University, Al Amal centre for deaf females, and secondary schools that integrate hard of hearing female students in Tabuk city, KSA. An interview schedule was used for data collection; it comprised demographic data, the World Health Organization violence against women scale, the verbal violence scale and DV properties. Data analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Science software, version 23 (SPSS Inc. Chicago, IL, USA).

Results
The results indicated that more than one-third (36%) of participants with a hearing disability were exposed to moderate to severe forms of DV. Living in an urban area, unmarried women, having a university-educated mother and a monthly income of more than 10 000 SAR were negative predictors for exposure to violence (p < 0.001). On the other hand, complete deafness, having deceased parents and larger family size were positive predictors for exposure to violence (p < 0.001) based on binary logistic regression results.

Conclusions
The prevalence of DV was moderate to high in more than one-third of the participating females with hearing disabilities in Tabuk city. Women living in an urban area, unmarried, having a university-educated mother and having high socio-economic status were at lower risk of experiencing DV. Thus, improving the economic status of deaf people and raising awareness of married women living in rural areas can be effective strategies to reduce DV against women with hearing disabilities.