Help seeking for intimate partner violence in a resource-constrained setting: A latent class analysis of the Nigerian demographic health survey dataset

Help seeking for intimate partner violence (IPV) is a complex process that involves reaching out to an external party. Women in resource constrained settings face unique constraints when seeking help for IPV but the latent classes of their help seeking behaviour in IPV has not been described. We therefore conducted a latent class analysis of help seeking behaviour among women experiencing IPV in Nigeria using the nationally representative 2018 Nigeria Demographic Health Survey (DHS) data. Nigeria was selected as an example of a resource constrained setting because close to half of its population is multidimensionally poor with significant financial and service barriers. Help seeking was defined by the latent class indicators of the places where or people from whom women sought help. The data were analysed in MPlus version 8.10 and survey sampling weights were applied. The relative fit of the models was compared using Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC), Adjusted BIC (ABIC), Lo-Mendell-Rubin Likelihood Ratio Test (LMR) p-values, and entropy values. Of the 3,054 women who experienced physical or sexual violence, 1,041 (33%) women reported seeking for help and a four-class model of help seeking behaviour (BIC = 3910.80, ABIC = 3837.70, LMR p-value = 0.0002, and entropy value = 0.92) was described: Class I (Own Family; 49%), Class II (Everywhere; 18%), Class III (Predominantly Formal; 5%), and Class IV (Predominantly Partner's Family; 28%). Women evinced a high reliance on informal sources for help. However, women with a history of sexual violence were most likely to access formal sources of help. Interventions for IPV have focussed on formal services but in resource constrained settings, the focus needs to be redirected to interventions for empowering informal sources of help (family, friends and neighbours) without neglecting formal systems.