The risk of interpersonal violence against women with disabilities in low-and middle-income countries: A systematic literature review

Abstract

Background: There has been substantial growth in the population that has experienced interpersonal violence, yet global solutions remain insufficient. Specifically, women with disabilities are especially at an increased risk of this violence. Objective: This systematic study intends to examine the risk of interpersonal violence against women with disabilities in low-and middle-incomer countries (LMICs) across the world. Design: The current review found 219 papers by searching the Sociological Abstracts, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases. Of them, 11 researches published between 2015 and 2022 met the criteria for inclusion in the review of the risk of interpersonal violence among women with disabilities. Settings: This review was done completely in LMICs, mostly in Asia (Nepal, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh) and Africa (Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, and Burkina Faso). Participants: In the selected articles, 16,635 participants were involved, of which 11,264 (67.7%) were women with disabilities. Methods: This systematic review adopts the World Health Organization and the World Bank (2021) definition of the term disability as the physical, sensory, mental health, and/or intellectual impairments that substantially impede one or more of the affected individuals' basic daily activities. The criteria of violence predictors developed by Shamu et al. (2012) were also adopted and used for the assessment in this review. In addition, this review used the Washington Group on Disability's quality evaluation of disability instrument. This review further used deductive thematic analysis to examine the risk of interpersonal violence. Results: Support workers and service providers’ evolving roles, a scarcity of change agents for those whose voices are marginalized, and lack of access to services were identified as risks of interpersonal violence against women with disabilities in LMICs, as opposed to deinstitutionalization and a lack of inclusive society in high-income countries. Conclusion: Women with disabilities are often susceptible to abuse, discrimination, and exclusion in a variety of contexts, including the family, refugee camps, and the workplace. This is because interpersonal sexual, physical, and emotional violence against women with disabilities is widespread in LMICs and urgent action is required. The review is built on these results to offer relevant implications and recommendations for policy, practice, and future research.

Keywords

• Risk
• Interpersonal violence
• Women
• Disabilities
• Low-and middle-income countries