Citation

Dichter M, Kolansky S, Rhodes K. Acad. Emerg. Med. 2007; 14(Suppl 1): S63.

Affiliation

University of Pennsylvania

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1197/j.aem.2007.03.872

PMID

17463940

Abstract

Objectives

Brief screening for intimate partner violence (IPV) in the ED may lead to false negatives and does not provide an indicator of the level of risk. The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of IPV-related 911 calls in the past year among female adults presenting to the ED and to evaluate this measure as an indicator of IPV. We hypothesized that >5% of adult female ED patients would report calls to 911 in the past 12 months and that asking about 911 calls would increase detection by at least 5%.

Methods

Trained research assistants screened all female, adult (18-65 years), English-speaking, oriented patients presenting to an urban university ED 7 am-midnight 7 days/wk for 12 weeks. Patients were asked two commonly-used IPV screening questions regarding last 12 month experience with physical violence or threat by an intimate partner and whether or not 911 had been called due to a fight between themselves and a male intimate partner. Standard descriptive statistics were used to determine the impact of the IPV-related 911 question.

Results

Of 1,715 patients screened, 5.0% screened positive for having been physically hurt or threatened by an intimate partner, and 4.6% reported that 911 had been called due to a fight between themselves and a male intimate partner, in the past 12 months. Interestingly, nearly half (46.2%) of those who screened positive for an IPV-related police call did not screen positive on the traditional IPV questions. Of IPV+ women, 49.4% reported a 911 call. The additional question about a IPV-related 911 call increased our detection rate by 42%.

Conclusions

Nearly half of those reporting a police call screened negative for IPV indicating that there might be a population of female ED patients who are not identified through traditional IPV screening questions but may be engaged in or experiencing partner violence. Adding one additional question regarding police calls to standard IPV screening could alert healthcare providers to potential IPV risk.

Language: en