Digital interventions to support and treat victims of intimate partner violence: a systematic review

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a public health issue. Digital interventions are emerging as a promise to overcome known-barriers to accessing usual IPV services, which have been supporting and treating IPV victims or their survivors, offering safer, more interactive, and real time access to help. Hence, a systematic review was carried out to identify and characterize current digital interventions to respond to IPV, including associated mental health conditions, and related outcomes among victims and survivors. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, we searched in three databases: EBSCOhost, PubMed, and Web of Science. Last search was performed in December 2022. Of the 1,816 electronic articles retrieved, and six added after a manual search, 16 studies were selected. Published between 2010 and 2021, the studies were experimental or quasi-experimental, with quantitative methodologies. Publication data, objectives, sample, design, instruments, intervention characteristics, results and conclusions were extracted from each study. Regarding results, safety decision aid or a variant was the most reported digital intervention. Significant improvements were identified for IPV exposure, related outcomes such as decisional conflict and safety strategies, and mental health conditions. In short, digital interventions hold promise, however there is a clear need for research focused on hard-to-reach victims or women who have left the abuser. Digital interventions have to be adapted to their needs, and security and privacy issues must be better ensured. The risk of publication bias and the exclusion of some specific keywords in the search were limitations of the study.