Abstract

Introduction: According to WHO suggestion, domestic violence against women is a health problem. Because of lack of information about general prevalence of domestic violence as well as contradiction among studies, this systematic review was performed to estimation of the prevalence of domestic violence against women by their husbands in Iran. Method and Material: This study is a systematic review about domestic violence against women. The search covered some national and international literature database including SID, PubMed, Magiran, Medlib, Irandoc, and Google scholar. After completion of search and critical appraisal of studies by check list, 18 articles that have been performed between 2001 and 2014 were included in the study. Results: According to finding provided by this study, prevalence of domestic violence was 22.9% (CI 95%: 22.2-23.6). It fluctuated between 5.4 and 94.7%. The maximum of prevalence was in Tehran and Zahedan, respectively. The former was 94.7 and the latter was 5.4%. Conclusions: In Iran, prevalence of domestic violence is lower than that in some other countries. However, it is increasing and may become a major health problem in next years. So individual and group trainings, consolation before marriage is a necessary strategy to prevention of such family disputes.

Keywords: Prevalence; Domestic violence; Women; Iran; Systematic review