Prevalence of physical, psychological and sexual intimate partner violence among women of reproductive age during COVID-19 in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

PeerJ. 2024 Aug 23:12:e17812. doi: 10.7717/peerj.17812. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 preventive measures such as stay at home and isolation leads to violence against women. Intimate partner violence (IPV) is one of the common violence during this pandemic. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of physical, psychological and sexual intimate partner violence among reproductive age women during COVID-19 in Ethiopia.

Materials and methods: Electronic databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar and African journals online and studies available from the occurrence of the pandemic to April 2023 were searched. Two researchers collected the data and independently performed the methodological quality assessment. To pool the collected data for each outcome with 95% confidence interval (CI), DerSimonian-Laird random effects meta-analysis was used. Publication bias was measured by Doi plot LFK index and Egger's test. Stata version 14.0 (StataCorp, College Station, Texas, USA) software was used for statistical analysis.

Results: A total of seven studies reported the prevalence of intimate partner violence among women in reproductive age during COVID-19, and the pooled prevalence of physical intimate partner violence was 22% (95% CI [0.12-0.32], I2 = 98.9%, tau2 = 0.0184, p < 0.001). The pooled prevalence of psychological intimate partner violence was 28% (95% CI [0.18-0.37], I2 = 98.1%, tau2 = 0.0142, p < 0.001). The pooled prevalence of sexual intimate partner violence was 23% (95% CI [0.13-0.34], I2 = 99.1%, tau2 = 0.0208, p < 0.001).

Conclusions: During COVID-19 reproductive age women in Ethiopia were affected by intimate partner violence. Physical, psychological and sexual intimate partner violence were reported, and their prevalence was high due to the pandemic. Future studies on impact of COVID-19 on IPV among reproductive age women should be conducted in nationwide to make more comprehensive conclusion.

Prospero registration number: CRD42023417628.

Keywords: COVID-19; Ethiopia; Gender based violence; Intimate partner violence; Reprodutive age; Systematic review and meta analysis; Women.

Publication types

  • Systematic Review
  • Meta-Analysis

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • COVID-19* / epidemiology
  • COVID-19* / psychology
  • Ethiopia / epidemiology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Intimate Partner Violence* / psychology
  • Intimate Partner Violence* / statistics & numerical data
  • Physical Abuse / psychology
  • Physical Abuse / statistics & numerical data
  • Prevalence
  • Sex Offenses / psychology
  • Sex Offenses / statistics & numerical data

Grants and funding

The authors received no funding for this work.