Documentation of family violence in New Zealand general practice

To determine the rate of family violence documented during general practice consultations and describe clinical presentations.

A dataset of 447,809 computerised consultations involving 143,634 patients from 41 general practices throughout New Zealand was examined to identify consultations recording family violence issues. The documentation rate was determined and the subset analysed.

A subset of 337 consultations from the 447,809 examined (0.075%) involved a family violence issue. This subset included 311 patients, 0.2% of the 143,634 patients in the original 6-month dataset. 225 (81%) of the patients in the subset were female. Family violence was the main reason for presentation in 137 (40%) consultations. The perpetrator was identified as the partner in 134 (40%) consultations, as the parent in 54 (16%) consultations and the patient identified themselves as the possible abuser in 17 (5%) consultations. Physical abuse (42%) and sexual abuse (26%) was most commonly mentioned. Past abuse (42%) was discussed as often as current abuse (41%). Depression and anxiety disorders were documented in 59 (18%) of these consultations.

The number of consultations documenting family violence is low in this dataset. Such information is not always recorded, however GPs can also be reluctant to ask about, and patients can be hesitant to disclose family violence issues. The number of consultations involving the perpetrator was higher than expected. GPs require training to deal with both the victim and the perpetrator of family violence.