If you are planning to look at the domestic violence variables for multiple countries, you may find the documentation on the IPUMS-DHS website very helpful. Let's say you want to look at which countries include a given question about violence/abuse from a woman's husband/partner:

1)Go to idhsdata.org
2) Click on "Select data"
3) Choose "Women" as the unit of analysis
4) From the drop-down topics menu, click on "Domestic violence--Domestic violence from husband/partner"
This will bring up the following variable display. An X means that the variable is available for the sample listed above it:
https://www.idhsdata.org/idhs-action/variables/group?id=dv_d vh

This way, you can identify which samples include the variables that interest you. Also, in IPUMS-DHS, data are recoded so that variable names and codes are consistent across samples, making analysis of change over time or across countries easy. If you click on a variable name, you can learn more about the variable, including its codes and frequencies, meaning, universe (who was asked the question), and question wording. You can select the samples and variables you want to make a free customized data file for analysis, if you log in with your DHS user name email and password.

Other drop-down menus in the domestic violence group show the availability of variables on related topics, such as attitudes toward domestic violence, violence from others (not partner/husband), sexual abuse, physical abuse while pregnant, and help-seeking behavior. You can display results for only those samples with the domestic violence module or only to countries that interest you if you use the "Select samples" tool.

I hope this helps.

Miriam King