Physical, sexual and emotional violence among Iranian women: a systematic review and meta-analysis study

Domestic violence is one of the major health problems and is a common source of health disorder among women which includes cases of emotional, physical and sexual abuse. The purpose of the present study was to provide a systematic review and meta-analysis study by reviewing the studies on the various forms of physical, sexual, and emotional violence.
This study included, the full-text studies on domestic violence against women performed from 2001 to 2014. Finally a total of 52 articles were selected using national and international data bases such as Science Direct, Scopus, Magiran PreQuest, SID, Google Schola, and Pubmed. Data analysis was done by meta-analysis method, applying random effects model. Study heterogeneity was measured by I2 test. The data were analyzed by STATA version 11.2.
The prevalence rate of emotional-mental violence (59% with CI 95%: 50-67) was higher than those of physical violence (45 % with CI 95%: 34-55) and sexual violence (32% with CI 95%: 25-50). Meta-regression results indicated a chronologically decreasing trend in the prevalence rates of sexual (P=0.083) and physical (P=0.276) violence; and a chronologically increasing trend in the prevalence rate of domestic violence (P=0.377).
Considering the high prevalence rate of domestic violence among the Iranian women (especially emotional violence), more studies are necessary to determine predisposing factors for emotional violence. We can also prevent the increasing trend of emotional violence by following policies advocating a higher level of social support for women and increasing the awareness of the public about the importance of the issue.