LETTERS
area of substance abuse and intimate partner violence in China; however, we believe that more research is needed in terms of the other risk factors as well. Xiao Xu, PhD, RN Jacquelyn Campbell, PhD, RN
About the Authors
XU AND CAMPBELL RESPOND
Xiao Xu is with Covance Health Economics and Outcomes Services Inc, Gaithersburg, Md. Jacquelyn Campbell is with The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, Baltimore, Md. Requests for reprints should be sent to Xiao Xu, PhD, Covance Health Economics and Outcomes Services, Inc., 9801 Washingtonian Boulevard, 9th Floor, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20878 (e-mail:
[email protected]). doi:10.2105/AJPH.2005.065383
We thank Bácskai et al. for their interest in our recent work, and we would like to make several points. First, limited research has been conducted in China to examine the prevalence and risk factors of intimate partner violence. Therefore, our research was exploratory. We examined the risk factors associated with intimate partner violence within the demographic, behavioral, and socioeconomic and cultural context of China. Second, a risk factor is not necessarily a cause. We conducted bivariate analyses (univariate logistic regression) to explore the explanatory risk factors, and further, conducted multivariate analyses to control for covariates. Partner’s alcohol drinking and getting drunk in the previous year were 2 of the behavioral risk factors found to be associated with intimate partner violence in the bivariate analysis. However, after we controlled for other factors (including socioeconomic and cultural factors), partner’s alcohol drinking was no longer significantly associated with intimate partner violence, and partner’s getting drunk in the previous year was significantly associated with lifetime intimate partner violence, but not with previous-year intimate partner violence. More than half of the risk factors that remained significantly associated with intimate partner violence in the multivariate models were socioeconomic and cultural factors. Third, most of the women who came to the clinic still held traditional Chinese beliefs. We agree that more research is needed in the
July 2005, Vol 95, No. 7 | American Journal of Public Health
Letters | 1093
