| Level |
Variable |
Category/Measurement/Definition |
| Level 1: Individual- level variables |
Age (years) |
The age of the woman categorized as 15–19, 20–24, 25–29, 30–34, 35–39, 40–44, 45–49. |
| Age at first marriage |
Grouped as <18 years and ≥ 18 years. |
| Educational status |
Maximum educational level categorized as uneducated, primary, or secondary and above. |
| Employment status |
Current employment status of the woman classified as unemployed or employed. |
| Religion |
The religion that the respondent is following categorized as Christian, Muslim, or others. |
| Witness to inter-parental violence |
‘Yes’ or ‘no’ based on their answer to the question, “As far as you know, did your father ever hit your mother?” |
| Number of living children |
Grouped as one or less, two to three, and ≥ four. |
| Substance abuse |
Classified ‘yes’ if respondent drinks alcohol, chews khat or smokes tobacco and ‘no’ otherwise. |
| Partner drinks alcohol |
Classified ‘yes’ if partner drinks alcohol and ‘no’ otherwise. |
| Attitude on IPV |
The attitude on IPV was measured based on the following five questions that men and women were asked about whether situations of hitting or beating a wife is justifiable: if she goes out without telling him; neglects their children; argues with him; refuses to have sex with him; and burns the food [27]. If they said ‘yes’ to any one of the above questions, they were categorized as having an unfavourable attitude and otherwise favourable attitude. |
| Access to media |
If respondent read a newspaper, listened to the radio, or watched television, they were categorized as have access and otherwise no access. |
| Household wealth index |
Measured based on the number and kind of goods households have and housing characteristics (drinking water, toilet facility, flooring material and availability of electricity) and was generated using principal component analysis (PCA) and classified into quintiles from 1 (very poor) to 5 (very rich) [27]. |
| Age of partner |
Categorised as under 25, 25–34, or ≥35. |
| Level |
Variable |
Category/Measurement/Definition |
| Level 1: relationship-level variables |
Women’s decision-making autonomy |
Labelled ‘yes’ if she was involved in all decisions regarding her own health care, major household purchases and visits to her family or relatives [27]. |
| Head of household |
Based on the gender of the head of the household and classified as either woman or man. |
| Educational difference |
The educational status of the woman compared to her partner’s educational status and classified as equal, lower or higher. |
| Age difference |
The age of the woman compared to her partner’s age and classified as woman younger, same age, husband older by ≤5 years, or husband older by more than 5 years. |
| Level 2: community-level variables |
Place of residence |
Defined as urban or rural using original EDHS coding |
| Early marriage |
Categorized as high if the proportion of women married before 18 years of age was 60.0–100% and low if the proportion was 0–59.9% |
| Female literacy |
Categorized as low if the proportion of women who attended primary or secondary education was 0–36.4% and categorized as high if the proportion was 36.5–100% |
| Community’s level of acceptance towards IPV |
Categorised as low if the proportion of women with an unfavourable attitude (having an IPV accepting attitude) in the community was 0–66.7% and categorized as high if the proportion was between 66.8% and 100% |
| Women’s decision-making autonomy |
Categorized as low if the proportion of women’s decision-making autonomy in the community was between 0–71.4% and high if the value ranged from 71.5 to 100% |
| Level 3: societal-level variables |
Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) |
Regions were classified as low or high MPI based on deviation from the national average |
| Gender Empowerment Index (GEI) |
Classified as below or above the national average |
