{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,1]],"date-time":"2026-10-01T06:00:36Z","timestamp":1790834436354,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":39,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,1]],"date-time":"2026-10-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790812800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Glob. Women\u2019s Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa. Its relationship with women's empowerment is theoretically contested, and most studies collapse empowerment into a single composite score, which may mask dimension-specific associations. We examined three empowerment dimensions including reproductive autonomy, household decision-making, and economic empowerment against physical, sexual, and emotional IPV among pregnant women in Northern Ghana.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      We surveyed 260 pregnant women attending antenatal care (April\u2013May 2023). Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) balanced high- and low-empowerment women on age, education, and number of children, retaining\n                      <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2009=\u2009246 for the pre-specified primary analysis. Double-Selection LASSO (DSL) logistic regression, applied to the full analytical sample (\n                      <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2009=\u2009260), served as a complementary sensitivity analysis. Balance after matching was assessed by standardised mean differences (SMDs) and variance ratios.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Any-IPV prevalence was 59.6%. Two associations showed convergent evidence across both Methods: (1) reproductive autonomy was protective against sexual IPV (CEM OR\u2009=\u20090.34, 95% CI 0.19\u20130.61; DSL OR\u2009=\u20090.36, 95% CI 0.20\u20130.63) and emotional IPV (CEM OR\u2009=\u20090.29, 95% CI 0.16\u20130.54; DSL OR\u2009=\u20090.36, 95% CI 0.20\u20130.64); and (2) household decision-making was positively associated with physical IPV in a backlash-direction pattern (CEM OR\u2009=\u20091.34, 95% CI 1.07\u20131.66,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2009=\u20090.009; DSL OR\u2009=\u20091.26, 95% CI 1.03\u20131.55,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2009=\u20090.028). Economic empowerment and the composite empowerment index were not significantly associated with any IPV outcome in either analysis.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats: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.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fgwh.2026.1905930","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,1]],"date-time":"2026-10-01T05:42:43Z","timestamp":1790833363000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Women's empowerment and intimate partner violence among pregnant women in Northern Ghana: evidence from coarsened exact matching and double-selection LASSO analyses"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Joseph","family":"Lasong","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, University for Development Studies","place":["Tamale, 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