Prevalence, risk factors, and impact of sexual abuse among children with disabilities in Asian countries: A scoping review of three decades (1995-2025).

BACKGROUND

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a critical human rights violation. Children with disabilities (CWD) face a 4 to 10 times higher risk due to dependency and communication barriers, yet evidence from Asian sociocultural contexts remains fragmented.

OBJECTIVE

This scoping review aims to map the prevalence, risk factors, and impacts of CSA among CWD in Asia.

METHODS

Guided by PRISMA-ScR, a systematic search was conducted across PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, ERIC, and Medline (1995-2025). Quantitative and qualitative studies involving children aged ≤18 were analyzed, identifying 2015 records, with 27 studies meeting the inclusion criteria.

RESULTS

Prevalence ranges from 1.5% to 40%, among the broader CWD population, while evidence derived specifically from studies on individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) reveals they face up to 14 times higher risk of sexual assault. Evidence is geographically skewed toward Turkey, Israel, and Taiwan. Critical findings reveal that trauma symptoms are frequently missed due to diagnostic overshadowing, where behavioral regression is misattributed to disability. Emerging risks include Online Child Sexual Abuse (OCSA) targeting socially isolated children, and severe rights violations such as forced contraception administered by families as a preventive measure.

CONCLUSION

The lack of disability identifiers in national registries creates statistical invisibility, hindering resource allocation. Urgent actions include prohibiting coercive medical interventions and training professionals to recognize non-verbal trauma indicators. Future research should address the data gap in Southeast Asia and employ participatory design approaches to enhance the understanding of the region's health issues.