Beliefs and Screening Practices of Virginia Physicians
Regarding Spouse/Partner Violence
Heather A. Sitterding
Objective: To determine the current practices, attitudes/opinions, perceived barriers and education needs in respect to spouse/partner violence among Virginia family practice physicians and obstetricians/gynecologists.
Methods: A survey was developed and administered to practicing family practice physicians and obstetricians/gynecologists in Virginia. The responses were collected and a database was created. The data was analyzed to determine a general understanding of the current screening and identification practices, attitudes/opinions, perceived barriers and education (both previously and future) among the selected health care specialties.
Prevalence and prevalence odds ratios (crude and adjusted) and their 95% confidence intervals were calculated for several possible variables that may influence if a physicians screen his/her patients. These variables were recognized and adjusted for mathematically for any potential confounding effect.
Results: The results indicated that 16.1% of the respondents screened every patient for spouse/abuse. The majority (33.3%) screened only when abuse was suspected. Screening was usually conducted by the physician (63.2%). In the past year, 37.1% of physicians identified 1-4.9% of their patients as victims of spouse/partner violence.
65.3% of physicians reported being confident about their skills in asking patients about spouse/partner violence. 79.1% of physicians do not feel that time is a barrier to screening patients.
Conclusions: A general picture of the manner in which spouse/partner violence is viewed and handled by Virginia family practice physicians and obstetric/gynecologists was determined. The findings suggest that work needs to be done to increase the number of physicians that screen every patient for spouse/partner violence. The majority of respondents did not identify several of the common barriers identified by much of the literature. However the low screening rate suggests that other barriers may exist that were not discussed in this study. Additional studies need to be conducted to determine what the barriers to screening are that Virginia family practice physicians and obstetricians/gynecologists encounter.
