Peer-reviewed article
Gender-based violence and women's nutrition: a systematic review.
Meyer SR, Gillespie A, Bhatt Carreno S, Johnstone L, Orjuela-Grimm M ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This systematic review examines the relationship between gender-based violence and women's nutrition outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. The review included 52 quantitative studies, mostly cross-sectional designs using Demographic and Health Survey data. The findings indicate that 45 of the 52 articles reported significant associations between women's experience of gender-based violence and poorer nutrition outcomes, with body mass index being the most commonly measured indicator.
Key points
- 92.5% of included studies used cross-sectional designs; only 4 used longitudinal prospective cohort designs
- 44.2% of studies used secondary data from Demographic and Health Surveys
- Intimate partner violence and child/early/forced marriage were the most frequently examined forms of GBV
- Body mass index was the most frequently evaluated nutrition outcome (n=32 studies)
- 45 of 52 articles (86.5%) found at least one significant association between women's GBV experience and poorer nutrition outcomes
Limitations
The review focuses on women's nutrition rather than children's well-being directly, and does not examine causal mechanisms or the nutritional impacts on children. The evidence base is limited primarily to cross-sectional studies, which cannot establish causality.
Abstract
Introduction Women's nutrition is vital to their health and well-being. Among many factors influencing women's nutrition in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), gender-based violence (GBV) may result in poorer nutrition outcomes. Current evidence syntheses do not focus on GBV and women's nutrition outcomes. We conducted a systematic review of quantitative evidence on women's experience of GBV and their nutrition outcomes in LMICs. Methods We conducted a structured search of six databases to identify manuscripts meeting inclusion criteria. Following the title and abstract and full-text review, we piloted and refined a data extraction template that included variables such as study design, research question, type(s) of GBV and nutrition indicators included in the study. Results Of the 52 manuscripts that met inclusion criteria, approximately 92.5% (n=48) had a cross-sectional study design, four manuscripts had longitudinal prospective cohort study designs. 44.2% (n=23) of the included manuscripts used secondary data from Demographic and Health Surveys specifically, while 40.4% (n=21) of the manuscripts used primary data collection methods in their analyses. Around half (n=27) of the included manuscripts looked at intimate partner violence as the violence exposure, and approximately 28.8% (n=15) of the included papers looked at child/early/forced marriage as the violence exposure. The most frequently evaluated outcome measure was body mass index, which was used in the majority of the included publications (n=32). A total of 45 of the 52 articles included at least one significant association between women's experience of GBV and poorer nutrition outcomes. Conclusion Consideration of the role of GBV in influencing women's nutrition outcomes in LMIC settings is sparse; however, this review indicates that women's experiences of GBV can have significant impacts on important nutritional indicators. Further research with a wider range of nutrition outcomes and study designs that enable understanding of causal mechanisms is warranted. Prospero registration number CRD42023402727.