Intimate partner violence has an an...

Intimate partner violence has an annual prevalence of 2 to 12 percent Health results include injury and death, as well as physical, social, and emotional puzzles many of which extend to the infants of women experiencing violence during pregnancy. latter attention to partner violence has emphasized screening programs. Wathen and MacMillan performed a systematic review of the evidence for strategies to identify and treat abused women presenting to a primary care setting.

A database search yielded 22 studies describing interventions meeting the investigators' selection criteria. Intimate partner violence was defined as physical and psychologic abuse of women on their male partners, including sexual abuse and abuse during pregnancy. issue measures included decrease in incidence of self-reported abuse, amount of accessible social support, use of safety behaviors or safety planning, and use of community resources.

sum of two units interventions are generally available to primary care physicians: screening and referral. No studies are available to determine the effectiveness of screening in improving issues in women. Physicians can consign women to a safe place, to counseling, or to other community-based resources, and can appertain men to treatment programs for abusive partners. Eleven studies described four referral interventions: advocacy counseling after at least united night's stay at a shelter; staying at a shelter; personal and vocational counseling; and prenatal counseling.

In a investigation that evaluated advocacy counseling following a stay in a shelter for at least single night, reabuse occurred less not seldom at the two-year follow-up in the intervention assemblage than in the control assemblage (76 percent versus 89 percent) Physical violence decreased and quality of life increased in the intervention assign places to No studies with a quality rating of profitable or fair exist to measure the effectiveness of shelters. In addition, there were no studies of sufficient quality to determine the effectiveness of personal and vocational counseling. Studies looking at prenatal counseling using information cards, counseling, and more intensive interventions had design flaws as well. Of the studies that evaluated interventions aimed at men or married pairs only one was rated as religious and that study concluded that three originals of interventions were not effective in reducing further violence against women In general, there was a gentle recidivism rate in both intervention and regulate groups, attributable perhaps to the deterrent setting provided by means of the military, the context in which the studious mood took place.

Screening tools exist to identify women experiencing intimate partner violence, on the other hand to date these tools have been evaluated merely to see if they do identify so women. There are no studies to determine whether screening is effective in preventing abuse. Intervention studies are of poor quality and flawed design. in such a manner far, only one study provides evidence for referring a woman to a shelter, followed by way of advocacy counseling.

The authors determine that it is premature to commend widespread screening programs for partner violence in health care settings. However, screening may be justified in determining the cause of symptoms and signs of abuse and preventing unnecessary work-ups when the etiology is, in fact, partner violence.

Wathen CN MacMillan HL Interventions for violence against women JAMA February 5 2003;289:589-600

COPYRIGHT 2003 American Academy of Family Physicians

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