Abstract

CANO MARTIN, Luis Miguel et al. Prevalence of gender violence in women who attend Primary Care Centres. Rev Clin Med Fam [online]. 2010, vol.3, n.1, pp.10-17. ISSN 2386-8201.

Objectives: To determine what percentage of women who attend primary care clinics suffer domestic violence and the women's associated clinical and socio-demographic characteristics. Design: Cross-sectional, observational, descriptive study. Setting: Rural and urban primary care centres. Participants: Consecutive sample of woman aged 18 years or over, who has a partner or had a partner in the past. Meaurements and main results: A questionnaire was designed that included socio-demographic variables, disease history and history of substance abuse. The short version of the Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST), and a self-administered questionnaire on abuse situations were also used. Twenty six point two percent (95% CI: 21.7-31.1%) had a postive WAST result and 25.9 % (95% CI: 21.3-30.9%) admitted to physical, emotional and sexual abuse by their partner at the present time (11.7%) or in the past (17.4%) The concordance of the responses to the two questionnaires was low (Kappa: 0.53). Logistic regression analysis revealed that the model that best predicts the existence of abuse included ethnic variables (OR: 0.14 -95%CI: 0.06-0.34- for "Spanish Caucasian women") and marital status (OR: 0.10 -95%CI: 0.04-0.24- and OR: 0.09 -95%CI: 0.04-0.21- for single women/widows and married women/stable partner, respectively, compared with the separated/divorced group). Conclusions: A high percentage of women who attend primary care centres have suffered domestic violence. In addition to clinical suspicion a screening or early detection tool is needed in order to diagnose domestic violence.

Keywords : Violence against Women; Spouse Abuse; Primary Health Care.

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