Prevalence of Torture and War Trauma in Forced Migrants: A Systematic Review

Erika Sigvardsdotter of Röda Korsets Högskola authored a systematic review of 41 peer-reviewed articles, aggregating data from 12,020 adult forced migrants in high-income countries. The review reports prevalence rates of torture ranging from 1% to 76%, with a median of 27%, and finds that almost all participants experienced war-related potentially traumatic events. The work was published as an Open Access (green) paper on the paperswithcode platform.

Use Cases

• Analyzing prevalence rates of torture across different migrant groups based on the reported 1-76% range.
• Studying the association between war-related traumatic experiences and mental health outcomes as a background variable.
• Comparing trauma exposure across specific ethnic or nationality groups, such as Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern, and Balkan populations.

Strengths

• Aggregates data from 41 studies with a total of 12,020 participants, providing a substantial evidence base.
• Reports specific prevalence statistics, including a median torture prevalence of 27% and a range from 1% to 76%.
• Includes a methodological quality appraisal of the included studies, suggesting a structured review process.

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation for the underlying aggregated data are unknown.
• The heterogeneity of data and methodological challenges in reaching forced migrants prevent generalization across groups.
• The dataset's last update date is unknown, which may affect its freshness.

Provenance

Source

Erika Sigvardsdotter, Röda Korsets Högskola

Collection Method

Systematic review of peer-reviewed articles from PubMed, Web of Science, PILOTS, key journals, and reference lists.

Geography

High-income countries; studies focused on specific groups including Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern, and Balkan populations.