Domestic Violence Against Women: Systematic Review of Prevalence Studies Samia Alhabib & Ula Nur & Roger Jones Published online: 15 December 2009 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009 Abstract To systematically review the worldwide evidence on the prevalence of domestic violence against women, to evaluate the quality of studies, and to account for variation in prevalence between studies, using consistent definitions and explicit, rigorous methods.

Domestic Violence Against Women: Systematic Review
of Prevalence Studies
Samia Alhabib & Ula Nur & Roger Jones
Published online: 15 December 2009
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009
Abstract To systematically review the worldwide evidence
on the prevalence of domestic violence against women, to
evaluate the quality of studies, and to account for variation
in prevalence between studies, using consistent definitions
and explicit, rigorous methods.

Systematic review of
prevalence studies on domestic violence against women.
Literature searches of 6 databases were undertaken for the
period 1995 to 2006. Medline, Embase, Cinahl, ASSIA,
ISI, and International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
were searched, supplemented by hand searching of the
reference lists from studies retrieved and specialized
interdisciplinary journals on violence. A total of 134 studies
in English on the prevalence of domestic violence against
women, including women aged 18 to 65 years, but
excluding women with specific disabilities or diseases,
containing primary, empirical research data, were included
in the systematic review. Studies were scored on eight predetermined
criteria and stratified according to the total
quality score. The majority of the sudies were conducted in
North America (41%), followed by Europe (20%). 56% of
studies were population-based, and 17% were carried out
either in primary or community health care settings. There
was considerable heterogeneity both between and within
geographical locations, health care settings, and study
quality The prevalence of lifetime domestic violence varies
from 1.9% in Washington, US, to 70% in Hispanic Latinas
in Southeast US. Only 12% scored a maximum of 8 on
our quality criteria, with 27% studies scored 7, and 17%
scored 6. The mean lifetime prevalence of all types of
violence was found to be highest in studies conducted in
psychiatric and obstetric/gynecology clinics. Results of this
review emphasize that violence against women has reached
epidemic proportions in many societies. Accurate measurement
of the prevalence of domestic violence remains problematic
and further culturally sensitive research is required to
develop more effective preventive policies and programs.
Keywords Domestic violence .Women . Prevalence .
Review
Introduction
Violence against women includes all verbal, physical, and
sexual assaults which violate a woman’s physical body,
sense of self and sense of trust, regardless of age, race,
ethinicity, or country (Campbell 1995). Violence against
women has been identified as a major public health and
human rights issue (Joachim 2000), and has been estimated
by the World Health Organization (WHO) to account for
between 5–20% of healthy years of life lost in women aged
15 to 44 (WHO 1997).

---

 

. .

---

The post Domestic Violence Against Women: Systematic Review of Prevalence Studies Samia Alhabib & Ula Nur & Roger Jones Published online: 15 December 2009 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009 Abstract To systematically review the worldwide evidence on the prevalence of domestic violence against women, to evaluate the quality of studies, and to account for variation in prevalence between studies, using consistent definitions and explicit, rigorous methods. appeared first on NURSING HOMEWORKS.