Prevention interventions for interpersonal violence occurring under the influence of alcohol: A mixed method systematic review

Abstract

Aims: To (a) explore risk indicators related to interpersonal violence occurring under the influence of alcohol and to (b) search for interventions addressed towards violence perpetrators to prevent violence occurring under the influence of alcohol. Design: Mixed method systematic review. This study has been registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews with register number CRD42021217848. Data sources: A systematic search was conducted on PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Scopus in October 2021. Review methods: Two researchers independently examined 1076 papers following the inclusion criteria. After three rounds of selection (title, abstract and full text), the quality and bias assessments were conducted independently by two reviewers. The data were analysed with inductive and deductive content analyses. Results: Of the 1076 papers retrieved, 16 papers were eligible for inclusion, addressing 13 different interventions. Interventions were divided into three types (individual-, group- and family-level) and were constructed on several background frameworks, with cognitive behavioural therapy being the most common framework. Family-level interventions seemed to yield the most effective results. Violence occurring under the influence of alcohol was mostly researched as men being the perpetrators and women being the victims of violence. Several indicators that increased the risk of violence victimization or perpetration, such as trait jealousy and disparity in education, were identified. Conclusion: Interventions emerging from the systematic review were heterogenous, and the outcomes of the interventions were versatile. The disparity between interventions and outcome measures made it challenging to reliably compare the effectiveness between interventions. Using standardized outcome measure instruments and unifying research on interventions are needed to reliably assess the effectiveness of different interventions.