Table 2_Women's empowerment and intimate partner violence among pregnant women in Northern Ghana: evidence from coarsened exact matching and double-selection LASSO analyses.docx

Two associations showed convergent evidence across both Methods: (1) reproductive autonomy was protective against sexual IPV (CEM OR = 0.34, 95% CI 0.19–0.61; DSL OR = 0.36, 95% CI 0.20–0.63) and emotional IPV (CEM OR = 0.29, 95% CI 0.16–0.54; DSL OR = 0.36, 95% CI 0.20–0.64); and (2) household decision-making was positively associated with physical IPV in a backlash-direction pattern (CEM OR = 1.34, 95% CI 1.07–1.66, p = 0.009; DSL OR = 1.26, 95% CI 1.03–1.55, p = 0.028).

Economic empowerment and the composite empowerment index were not significantly associated with any IPV outcome in either analysis.</p>Conclusions<p>Reproductive autonomy showed a protective association with sexual and emotional IPV in the two different analytic approaches. Household decision-making showed a convergent positive association with physical IPV consistent with the backlash hypothesis. Composite empowerment scores obscured all dimension-specific patterns.

Interventions strengthening reproductive autonomy, particularly contraceptive access and sexual-consent education, may reduce IPV vulnerability more directly than broad aggregated empowerment measures.</p>