[Improving care for victims of domestic violence. Impact of a priority intervention]

To evaluate the impact of a priority intervention in the care given to women who are victims of domestic violence and their children.

Non-randomised intervention study.

Urban health centre.

Women and children living at a reception centre for families suffering domestic violence and who had clinical records opened at the health centre. Pre-intervention group (December 1997-July 1999): 36 women, 70 children. Post-intervention group (August 1999-June 2000): 35 women and 41 children.Interventions. Allocation to a single family doctor and paediatrician. Elimination of bureaucratic obstacles and prioritised care. Social/family assessment by the social worker. Preferential inclusion in programmes: Women: family planning, hepatitis B vaccination, pregnancy control, early diagnosis of breast cancer (women > 50), same for cervical cancer. Children: child health (< 5) (priority activities: psychomotor development and somatometry) and vaccinations. This intervention started in August 1999.

Measurement of the impact of the intervention: bivariant analysis through Chi2 test for qualitative variables and Student's t test and U Mann-Whitney test for quantitative variables (alpha 0.05) in the pre- and post-intervention groups. Statistically significant differences in participation were detected between the pre- and post-intervention groups in the following activities: number of visits to programmes (0.49, SD 0.95; 1.01, SD 1.24, respectively), social and family assessment (83%/100%), family planning (14%/51.4%), hepatitis B vaccination (19%/48.7%), early cervical cancer diagnosis (0/25.7%), child health (33.4%/70%), vaccinations (26.34%/64%), somametric assessment (25%/100%) and psychomotor development assessment (41.6%/94%).

Prioritised intervention in families that are victims of domestic violence improves their participation in preventive activities.