• The study also found high levels of violence against adolescent girls and young women.
• In the youngest age cohort, 15 to 19, 24 per cent are estimated to have experienced intimate partner violence in their lifetime.
One in four women worldwide experiences domestic violence before they reach the age of 50.
This is according to a recent study that was done by a team of scientific researchers spanning at least four continents including Central Sub-saharan Africa.
The 2008 to 2018 study, one of the largest ever conducted, found an estimate of 27 per cent of women aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical and or sexual violence by a male partner in their lifetime.
"One in seven women (13%), almost 500 million globally, had experienced domestic violence within the last year of the research being conducted," the study said.
According to The Guardian, the study was an analysis of over 366 studies involving more than 2 million women.
The publication said that the findings were based on cases that were reported only meaning, the numbers could be higher.
"They were based on self-reported experiences, and given the sensitive and stigmatised nature of the issue, the true scale of violence is feared to be even higher, according to the researchers," they said.
Gender-based violence has been described as the shadow pandemic to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The number of cases reported went up significantly here in Kenya in the period of lockdown during quarantine.
The study also found high levels of violence against adolescent girls and young women.
In the youngest age cohort, 15 to 19, 24 per cent are estimated to have experienced intimate partner violence in their lifetime.
In patriarchal societies like Africa, this kind of trend is likely to create lasting effects and impressions on these young people.
According to research from the World Health Organisation (WHO), adolescent boys and girls are more likely to justify gender-based violence than adult men and women.
"The lifetime prevalence among women aged 15 to 49 was highest in Oceania (49%) and central sub-Saharan Africa (44%).
The regions with the lowest estimated lifetime domestic violence against women were central Europe (16%) and central Asia (18%)," they added.
LynnMarie Sardinha, lead author of the study and also of the WHO advised that more needs to be done to develop and invest in the effective community and school-based interventions that promote gender equality and reduce young women’s risk of being subjected to violence from a partner.