Silent Suffering: Unveiling Factors Associated with Women’s Inability to Seek Help for Intimate Partner Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)

Evidence shows that intimate partner violence (IPV) occurs more frequently in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) than in other regions of the world. However, limited empirical studies exist on the help-seeking behaviour of women who had experienced IPV in SSA. This study aimed to examine the help-seeking behaviour of women who had experienced IPV in SSA and the factors associated with their inability to seek help after experiencing IPV. This is a quantitative study based on data from the latest demographic and health surveys (DHS) of 24 SSA countries. A sample of 53,446 women aged 15–49 years was included in the study. Associations between women’s background characteristics and their help-seeking behaviour after experiencing IPV were examined using proportions and multivariate logistic regression models. Overall, 60.7