The level of violence in study communities was determined by a weighted violence score which was retrieved from three parameters of violence, namely the number of violent events, number of injuries and number of deaths from violent events. These three parameters were divided by the mid-interval population to obtain the standardized scores of numbers of events, injured
cases and dead cases, respectively. Factor analysis was then run on these three violence-related variables to obtain a weighted violence score for each district, reflecting the level of violence. Women living in the same district thus had the same weighted violence score.