[Profile of studies about intimate partner violence against women: 2003 to 2007]

To describe the studies about intimate partner violence against women in terms of field of knowledge to which they belong, sex of authors, country where they were conducted, language of publication, study design, participants, and place where data were collected.

A systematic review of Medline, PsycINFO, LILACS, and SciELO databases was conducted from January to May 2008 for articles published between 2003 and 2007. The search using Portuguese terms was conducted only in LILACS and SciELO.

A total of 176 studies about intimate partner violence against women was selected for analysis. Of these, 84.7% were in published in English; 49.4% were published in biomedical journals; and 86.4% had a quantitative design. The studies were carried out in a variety of countries, particularly in North America (42.1%). Participants were mostly married women aged 20 to 39 years (72.2%) who were victims of violence by a current partner (97.2%). Most subjects were recruited in healthcare services (30.7%) or through household sampling (30.1%). Study authors were mostly women (57.7%).

Future studies should combine different methodological approaches and select and describe victims and perpetrators to ensure comparability. This is necessary to advance this field of knowledge and to enable the establishment of effective policies to eradicate violence against women.