The Relationship between Abuse during Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes: An Overview of Meta –Analysis

Background Violence against women is a social, legal and health problem that poses a threat to mother and child in pregnancy. The present overview was conducted to review of Meta-analysis that assessed the line between the abuse on mother during pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes. Materials and Methods: This study reviewed all published articles from January 1996 to March 2018 by searching International databases such as Scopus, EMBASE, Medline (via PubMed), Google Scholar, Web of Sciences, and Cochrane library for related Meta-analysis. Also, along with international databases, national databases such as SID, Magiran, Medlib and Irandoc were searched. Two independent researchers screened articles and in the next step, full texts of probably relevant articles were read and summarized. There was not any language limitation. Results: Data from 5 Meta- were entered. A significant relationship was found between abuse during pregnancy and Low birth weight (LBW) (odds ratios [OR] ranged from 2.11 to 1.18; five Meta-analysis), and preterm birth (PTB) (OR ranged from 1.21 to 1.91). According to one Meta-analysis, intimate partner violence (IPV) was statistically marginally associated with small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infants (OR: 1.37, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.02 to 1.84; Heterogeneity I2: 84%; I2: 32%), but there was not any relationship between IPV with Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) (P>0.05). Conclusion Our overview showed that the pregnant women who expose to domestic violence are at increased risk of an adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preterm birth', low birth weight' and small for gestational age' infants. So, intervention such as screening and counseling for violence is needed for all pregnancy women especially previous victims of violence.