Violence against women: systematic review of the Brazilian scientific literature within the period from 2009 to 2013.

Violence against women is a worldwide issue, and the number of publications addressing it tends to increase, due to its magnitude. This article analyzes the scientific literature on the issue, within the period from 2009 to 2013. This is a systematic review of articles indexed in the Virtual Health Library (VHL). It included studies freely available online and published in Brazil, in full text, in Portuguese. It excluded articles without a scientific standard, those published abroad, and government information. The studies were assessed regarding methodological aspects and those related to violence, and data underwent statistical analysis in the softwares SPSS and Excel. Most of the 148 texts were qualitative, published in 2011, by up to 3 authors, and the victims were individuals mainly assessed through Content Analysis. The violence types identified were physical, sexual, and psychological, with overlapping forms related to mental and physical consequences. The findings converge with the current trend to address violence in a qualitative way, in order to provide an in-depth analysis of the victims' experiences. It is expected that this study contributes to raising awareness as for the need to approach the issue, with a view to promote women's health.