Table 1.

Studies included in the review (n = 8).

Author, Year/Country/Reference	Study Objective	Design, Sample, and Method of Analysis	Conceptualization of Structural Violence (SV)	Health-Related Outcome (s)	Findings
Sanchéz-Sauco, 2019/Spain/[31]	To contribute to closing the current gap in the literature that holistically examines socio-cultural influences on perinatal drug dependency.	Qualitative study (semi-structured interviews)/thematic analysis Perinatal substance use and/or drug dependency in 10 pregnant women.	Socio-cultural factors	Substance use/drug dependency	The criminalization and stigmatization of addiction, and the risk discourse elucidate the multi-layered social barriers that drug-dependent women experience when seeking rehabilitation services.
Rodríguez-Martínez and Cuenca-Piqueras, 2019/Spain/[30]	To investigate how sexual harassment in the workplace intersects with other forms of direct and indirect violence towards Spanish and unauthorized migrant women working in sex and domestic work who have suffered direct and indirect violence.	Qualitative study/multi-level intersectional analysis Interviews with 32 Spanish and unauthorized migrant women (Latin American, Eastern European, and African).	Power imbalance and discrimination (related to working as a sex worker and immigrant status)	Intimate partner violence/sexual harassment	Findings were that the interviewed women did not consider verbal abuse as sexual harassment and attributed the abuse to their work. In addition, they perceived sexual harassment to be linked to respect and not to love. The authors indicated that sexual harassment had less devastating consequences for women than did intimate partner violence.
Larchanché, 2012/France/[32]	To identify obstacles for undocumented immigrants to realize their health care rights.	Qualitative participant observation, critical review of legislative debates and reports related to health care of migrants (n = 5)/ethnographic analysis.	Social stigmatization, precarious living conditions, fear created by restrictive immigrant policies	Health care access	Findings showed that while, legally, undocumented immigrants were entitled to health care rights in France, the consequences of their social stigmatization and of their precarious living conditions, and the climate of fear and suspicion generated by increasingly restrictive immigration policies in practice hindered many from feeling entitled to those rights.
Pursch et al., 2020/France/[33]	To explore the provision of health services to migrants in Calais and La Linière in northern France; to contribute to the discourse on the effects of SV on non-governmental service providers and migrants in precarious conditions; and to inform service provision policies.	Qualitative (semi-structured interviews)/20 key interviewees—Non-governmental organization (NGO) representatives/thematic analysis.	Immigrant status	Health care access	Structural violence negatively affected migrant well-being through restricted services, intentional chaos, and related disempowerment. The NGOs were required to shift service delivery to adhere to boundaries set by the government, such as limiting distribution points and constantly changing distribution locations to ensure that individuals living on the streets had difficulties to access services.
Owczarzak et al., 2021/Ukraine/[34]	To explore paperwork as a form of SV through its production of “legitimate” citizens, often through reinforcement of gender stereotypes and moral narratives of deservingness. In addition, the study examined the relationship between the government and NGOs in the provision of services to women who used drugs.	Qualitative study including 78 participants (41 medical and social service providers and 37 women who used drugs)/grounded theory.	Paperwork bureaucracy	Health and social care provision	Documentation requirements were enacted as a form of SV towards already marginalized women through use of coding for marginalized, stigmatized, ill, or disabled identities, and prevented the women from accessing the services and resources they needed.
Hamed et al., 2020/Sweden, Germany and Portugal/[36]	To study access to health care in several neighbourhoods by interviewing local health care users.	Qualitative study (semi-structured interviews)/11 interviewees (health care users)/thematic analysis.	Discrimination (racism, racial inequalities)	Health care access	Findings were that users felt that medical staff viewed these patients’ narratives as illegitimate, and regarded the patients as unworthy of treatment, which often resulted in a delay in treatment.
Lewis and Russel, 2013/United Kingdom/[37]	To understand the issues faced by young smokers—and those trying to quit smoking—in a deprived community.	Qualitative study (ethnographic study with participant observation) including 5 members of a youth club located in a disadvantaged neighbourhood.	Neighbourhood deprivation	Smoking /quitting smoking	The study found that young people were somewhat caught between three competing domains (economic and political structures, media structures, and organized crime). These domains together conspired to provide young people with means of consumption from which they were excluded through legitimate structures.
Sarang et al., 2010/Russia/[35]	To explore accounts of HIV and health risks among injection drug users.	Mixed-method study including a qualitative (semi-structured interviews) and quantitative (descriptive) design and a sample of 209 injection drug users. Qualitative data analysed using thematic analysis.	Drug policing strategies	Drug use/risk of physical violence	The study found that policing practices violated the rights of drug users directly, but also indirectly, through inflicting social suffering. Extrajudicial policing practices introduced fear and terror into the day-to-day lives of drug injectors, and ranged from the mundane (arrest without legal justification or evidence in order to expedite arrest or detainment; and extortion of money or drugs for police gain) to the extreme (physical violence as a means of facilitating confession, and as an act of “moral punishment” without legal cause or rationale, as well as torture and rape).

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV); Non-governmental organization (NGO); Structural violence (SV).