Spousal violence against women and its association with women's mental health in Pakistan.

In Pakistan, the issue of spousal violence is under-researched and still not considered a public health problem. To assess the association of spousal violence with women's mental health, a hospital-based cross-sectional survey was conducted through a structured interview schedule with 373 randomly selected ever-married women of reproductive age in eight randomly selected hospitals in the cities of Lahore and Sialkot, Pakistan. After controlling for sociodemographic variables, women's experiences of past and current psychological, physical, and sexual violence remained significantly associated with women's poor mental health. The situation warrants urgent action to mitigate the violence-induced damages done to women's mental health.