[Domestic violence: a screening question]

To assess whether key questions can detect domestic violence (DV), and find out the prevalence in primary care (PC) and women's care (WC).

Intervention Study with random assignment.

PC and WC clinics (Sant Boi de Llobregat Barcelona).

Systematic random selection of women in PC (not know if battered) and women who came for the first time to the WC service. Age-matched controls were selected. A total of 400 women were interviewed.

Anamnesis was performed and a questionnaire filled in. In the control group (CG) there was one question concerning DV, in the intervention group (IG) there were 6 key questions: relationship of their parents, partner's parents, if the partner had suffered abuse, relationship with her partner, if sexual relations were consensual or got angry if they were not. When DV was detected, asked about type, features and duration.

A total of 101(25.3%) cases of violence were detected, 58(29.4%) in IG and 43(21.2%) in CG (odds ratio (OR)=1.55, confidence interval (CI): 0.96-2.51, P=0.06). WC rates were 32.7% and 17.5% (OR: 2.3, CI: 1.2-4.5, P:0.007) and PC 25.3% and 25.8% (OR: 0.97, CI: 0.47-2.02, P=0.5), respectively. Different characteristics were observed depending on whether they were from PC or WC, but were similar between IG and CG, except mental disability, more common in IG. 23.5% suffered from a psychiatric disorder, 15% in non-battered and 44% in the battered, in 68% of these the disorder appeared after the abuse.

Abuse is a Public Health problem. When women visit for the first time it is necessary to use indirect questions to make communication easier, if the woman and the professional know each other, a single question is enough to detect it.