Dating violence among Iranian medical student

Background: Dating violence (DV)isthe most serious public health concern with negative health consequences.The aim of this study was toinvestigate the dating violenceamongIranian medical students. Method: By using a across-sectional survey, from October 2016to January 2017, we recruited 926 medical students aged between 18-25 years through multi-stage systematic sampling.This research conducted in Mazandaran University of Medical science in north of Iran,by using Persian version of youth risk behavior questionnairerelated toCenter for Disease Control and Prevention. Results: The mean age of participants was 21.19 ± 1.97, also %56.2 of the students were females and %43.8 were males. The prevalence of being hit, slapped, or a physically hurt by a boyfriend or girlfriend was found to be around %5 and %7.6 among girls and boys, respectively. Also the prevalence of being physically forced into sexual relationship was %4.6 and %5.7 among girls and boys, respectively, and there was not any significant relationship between DV and gender (p 0.05). Conclusion: The results of the study indicated that dating violence is a public health issue and both male and female students are at the risk of being victim, so health counseling should applied to both genders.