The prevalence of sexual violence during pregnancy in Iran and the world: a ‎systematic review and meta-analysis

Domestic violence during pregnancy is a public health crisis, because it affects both mother ýand fetus simultaneously, resulting in irreversible consequences for mothers and their ýnewborns. This study was performed to determine the prevalence of sexual violence during ýpregnancy in the world and Iran as meta-analysis.ý
This study is a meta-analysis on the prevalence of sexual violence during pregnancy ýin the world and Iran that was conducted on Persian and English published articles up to ýý2015. To this end, through searching the information by key words and their compounds at SID, Medlib, Irandoc, Google scholar, Pubmid, ýISI, Iranmedex, Scopus and Magiran, , all related articles ýwere extracted independently by two trained researchers. The results of studies analyzed using ýthe STATA and Spss16 software.ý
In the initial searching of 167 articles, 33 articles related to Iran, 40 articles related to ýother parts of the world and totally 73 articles met inclusion criteria for study. The prevalence ýof sexual violence during pregnancy were estimated in the world 17% (CI95%:15% -18%) and ýin Iran 28% (CI95%: 23% -32%).The prevalence of sexual violence during pregnancy in Iran is ýý11 percent more than the world.ý
According to the present meta-analysis results, the prevalence of sexual violence ýduring pregnancy in Iran is high. Given that sexual violence during pregnancy causes damage to ýthe mother and infant, it is recommended that the relevant authorities with the implementation ýof intervention and educational programs reduce the prevalence of sexual violence during ýpregnancy.