Intimate partner violence: analysis of current screening practices in the primary care setting

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Clinical Medicine
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Intimate partner violence (IPV) affects a significant portion of women, yet remains largely undetected.
• Conflicting recommendations exist for universal IPV screening by organizations like USPSTF and WHO.
• Many women are not asked about IPV during routine clinic visits, highlighting a gap in current practices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify current intimate partner violence (IPV) screening approaches in primary care.
• To determine factors influencing the completion of IPV screenings.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 400 patients at four university-affiliated primary care clinics in southeast Florida.
• Collected data on patient and screener demographics, screening completion, and results.
• Compared IPV screening rates with those for anxiety and depression using chi-square and Fisher exact tests.

Main Results:

• IPV screening was conducted at a significantly lower rate (8.5%) compared to anxiety (37.3%) and depression (71.3%) screenings.
• A high rate of patient refusal (64.7%) was observed among documented IPV screenings.
• Patient ethnicity showed a marginal impact on screening rates (P = 0.052).

Conclusions:

• Low screening rates and low success rates question the efficacy of advocating for universal IPV screening.
• Significant barriers to screening completion must be identified through further research before universal inquiry is advised.