Detecting Intimate Partner Violence During Pregnancy Using Municipal Pregnancy Registration Records: An...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy needs to be prevented because it leads to negative health outcomes for both the mother and offspring. However, it is not easy to detect women who suffer from IPV by health practitioners or public health staff due to stigma attached to it or hesitation of the women to disclose it. The aim of this study is to develop a scale using pregnancy registration records to detect IPV during pregnancy. We used administrative data of pregnancy registration records of Adachi City, Tokyo, in the 2016 fiscal year (N = 5,990). IPV was assessed at the first interview or another opportunity for further assessment by a public health nurse. The data include registration information, demographics, health and perinatal status, and social environment. Multiple logistic regression model was used to predict IPV. IPV cases were found for 24 (0.4%) cases. Subsequent child (odds ratio [OR]: 3.45, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.02-11.6]), single marital status (OR: 7.96, 95% CI [2.88-22.2]), thinness (OR: 3.17, 95% CI [1.13-8.90]), past pregnancy of four or more times (OR: 5.25, 95% CI [1.35-20.4]), having trouble with family member (OR: 5.45, 95% CI [1.95, 15.2]), and poverty (OR: 6.27, 95% CI [2.25-17.5]) showed significant association with IPV. These variables detected IPV with good predictive power (area under receiver operating characteristic curve = 0.89, 95% CI [0.81-0.98]). We showed strong detectability of IPV during pregnancy using a scale based on pregnancy registration records in which IPV was not asked directly. The current study is useful to detect IPV during pregnancy and prevent further adverse health outcomes due to IPV during pregnancy.