Back to Search
Start Over
Increased awareness of intimate partner abuse after training: a randomised controlled trial.
- Source :
-
The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners [Br J Gen Pract] 2006 Apr; Vol. 56 (525), pp. 249-57. - Publication Year :
- 2006
-
Abstract
- Background: Intimate partner abuse is very common among female patients in family practice. In general, doctors overlook the possibility of partner abuse.<br />Aim: To investigate whether awareness of intimate partner abuse, as well as active questioning, increase after attending focus group and training, or focus group only.<br />Design of Study: Randomised controlled trial in a stratified sample.<br />Setting: Family practices in Rotterdam and surrounding areas.<br />Method: A full-training group (n = 23), a group attending focus group discussions alone (n = 14), and a control group (n = 17) were formed. Data were collected with incident reporting of every female patient (aged >18 years) that was suspected of, or presented, partner abuse during a period of 6 months. The primary outcome measure was the number of reported patients; the secondary outcome measure was the number of patients with whom the GP had non-obvious reasons to suspect/discuss abuse.<br />Results: Comparison of the full-training group (n = 87 patients) versus the control group (n = 14 patients) resulted in a rate ratio of 4.54 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.55 to 8.09, P <0.001); the focus group only group (n = 30 cases) versus control group: rate ratio of 2.2 (95% CI = 1.14 to 4.26, P = 0.019); full-training versus the focus group only group: rate ratio of 2.19 (95% CI = 1.36 to 3.52, P = 0.001). Comparison of the fulltraining group with the untrained groups for awareness of partner abuse in case of non-obvious signs resulted in: odds ratio 5.92 (95% CI = 2.25 to 15.62, P <0.01) all corrected for sex, district, practice setting, working part/full-time, experience, and age of the doctor.<br />Conclusions: Training was the most significant determinant to improve awareness and identification of intimate partner abuse. Active questioning increased, especially where there were non-obvious signs. The focus group on its own doubled the awareness of partner abuse.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Attitude of Health Personnel
Clinical Competence standards
Family Practice standards
Family Practice statistics & numerical data
Female
Focus Groups
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Netherlands
Physician-Patient Relations
Socioeconomic Factors
Spouse Abuse statistics & numerical data
Education, Medical, Continuing
Family Practice education
Spouse Abuse diagnosis
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0960-1643
- Volume :
- 56
- Issue :
- 525
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 16611512