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Should health professionals screen women for domestic violence? : systematic review
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Ramsay, Jean, Richardson, Jo, Carter, Yvonne, Davidson, Leslie L. and Feder, Gene (2002) Should health professionals screen women for domestic violence? : systematic review. BMJ, Vol.325 (No.7359). doi:10.1136/bmj.325.7359.314 ISSN 0959-535X.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.325.7359.314
Abstract
Objective To assess the evidence for the acceptability
and effectiveness of screening women for domestic
violence in healthcare settings.
Design Systematic review of published quantitative
studies.
Search strategy Three electronic databases (Medline,
Embase, and CINAHL) were searched for articles
published in the English language up to February
2001.
Included studies Surveys that elicited the attitudes of
women and health professionals on the screening of
women in health settings; comparative studies
conducted in healthcare settings that measured rates
of identification of domestic violence in the presence
and absence of screening; studies measuring
outcomes of interventions for women identified in
health settings who experience abuse from a male
partner or expartner compared with abused women
not receiving an intervention.
Results 20 papers met the inclusion criteria. In four
surveys, 4385% of women respondents found
screening in healthcare settings acceptable. Two
surveys of health professionals' views found that two
thirds of physicians and almost half of emergency
department nurses were not in favour of screening. In
nine studies of screening compared with no
screening, most detected a greater proportion of
abused women identified by healthcare professionals.
Six studies of interventions used weak study designs
and gave inconsistent results. Other than increased
referral to outside agencies, little evidence exists for
changes in important outcomes such as decreased
exposure to violence. No studies measured quality of
life, mental health outcomes, or potential harm to
women from screening programmes.
Conclusion Although domestic violence is a common
problem with major health consequences for women,
implementation of screening programmes in
healthcare settings cannot be justified. Evidence of the
benefit of specific interventions and lack of harm from
screening is needed.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Subjects: | R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine | ||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Family violence -- Great Britain, Medical screening -- Great Britain, Women -- Health and hygiene -- Great Britain | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | BMJ | ||||
Publisher: | BMJ Group | ||||
ISSN: | 0959-535X | ||||
Official Date: | 10 August 2002 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Vol.325 | ||||
Number: | No.7359 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1136/bmj.325.7359.314 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||
Funder: | National Screening Committee |
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