Abstract

Background: Many adolescent women are initiated to sexual debut with force or coerce that can lead to a wide variety of serious sexual and reproductive health consequences. The variation in the prevalence of sexual violence among female students reported from many fragmented studies in Ethiopia has not yet been studied. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to estimate the pooled prevalence of sexual violence among female students in Ethiopia.

Methods: Articles were identified through search of databases in PubMed/MEDLINE, HINARI, EMBASE, CINAHL, Google Scholar, Science Direct and Cochrane Library. Thirteen studies were included in this meta-analysis. The data were extracted using a standardized data extraction form. The data were imported into STATA Version 11 for analysis. Heterogeneity among reported prevalence was assessed by Forest plot, Cochran’s Q test, and I² test.  A random effects model was calculated to estimate the pooled prevalence of sexual violence.

Results: The pooled prevalence of life time sexual violence against female students in Ethiopia was 48.93% (95% CI: 37.61, 60.25). Besides, subgroup analysis revealed that the highest prevalence of sexual violence against female students was observed in Oromia region (60.23%). Higher sexual violence prevalence was found among University students with a pooled prevalence of 53.76%.

Conclusion: This systemic review and meta-analysis revealed that nearly half of female students experienced sexual violence in Ethiopia. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that there is need to develop prevention strategies, effective interventions, and programs to reduce female students’ violence in educational institutions.

Keywords: Sexual violence, Students, Meta-analysis, Systematic review, Ethiopia