Measurement of violence against women and disability: protocol for a scoping review

Violence against women is a serious threat to women's health and human rights globally. Disability has been associated with increased risk of exposure to different forms of violence, however, there are questions concerning how best to measure this association. Research on understanding the association between violence and disability among women has included incorporating short disability measures into violence against women prevalence surveys. The potential to improve understanding of interconnections between violence and disability by measuring violence within disability-focused research is underexplored. The scoping review described here focuses on three areas of measurement of violence against women and disability: (1) measurement of violence within the context of disability-focused research, (2) measurement in research focused on the intersection of disability and violence and (3) measurement of disability in the context of research focused on violence against women. Specifically, we aim to map definitions, measures and methodologies in these areas, globally.

For our scoping review, we will conduct searches for quantitative studies of disability-focused research which use measures of violence against women, and measures of disability in research focused on violence against women, in 11 online databases. Two authors will independently review titles and abstracts retrieved through the search strategy. We will search for grey literature, search the websites of National Statistics Offices for all countries to identify any national or subnational disability research and consult with experts for input. Data extraction will be conducted independently by one author and reviewed by another author, and data will be analysed and synthesised using a thematic synthesis approach.

Ethics approval was not sought as no primary data is being collected. Findings will be disseminated through a publication in a peer-reviewed journal, through coordinated dissemination to researchers, practitioners, data users and generators and through various working groups and networks on violence against women and disability.