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

BACKGROUND: Domestic violence during pregnancy is a public health crisis, because it affects both mother and fetus simultaneously, resulting in irreversible consequences for mothers and their newborns. This study was performed to determine the prevalence of sexual violence during pregnancy in the world and Iran as meta-analysis.

METHODS: This study is a meta-analysis on the prevalence of sexual violence during pregnancy in the world and Iran that was conductedon Persian and English published articles up to 2015. To this end, through searching the information by key words and their compounds at SID, Medlib, Irandoc, Google scholar, Pubmid, ISI, Iranmedex, Scopus and Magiran, all related articles were extracted independently by two trained researchers. The results of studies analyzed using the STATA and Spss 16 software.

RESULTS: In the initial searching of 167 articles, 33 articles related to Iran, 40 articles related to other parts of the world and totally 73 articles met inclusion criteria for study. The prevalence of sexual violence during pregnancy were estimated in the world 17% (CI 95%: 15% -18%) and in Iran 28% (CI 95%: 23%-32%). The prevalence of sexual violence during pregnancy in Iran is 11 percent more than the world.

CONCLUSIONS: According to the present meta-analysis results, the prevalence of sexual violence during pregnancy in Iran is high. Given that sexual violence during pregnancy causes damage to the mother and infant, it is recommended that the relevant authorities with the implementation of intervention and educational programs reduce the prevalence of sexual violence during pregnancy.