Does pregnancy provide immunity from intimate partner abuse among Hong Kong Chinese women?

Analysis of the data indicated that 134 (11.2%) of the women had experienced abuse during pregnancy. The majority of this abuse took the form of psychological aggression (79.1%), and nearly half (49.3%) of the abused women had experienced sexual abuse. The husband was the perpetrator in the majority of cases (82.1%). Women who were younger, born in Hong Kong, single or cohabiting, had poor socio-economic status, a poor partner relationship, and an unplanned pregnancy were more likely to be abused based on multiple logistic regression models of various nature and type of abuse (p<0.05). The findings provide fundamental information for the prevention of intimate partner abuse among the Hong Kong population. The implications, limitations, and future research are discussed.