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Citation
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Zapata-Calvente AL, Megías JL, Velasco C, Caño A, Khan KS, Rubio L, Martin-de-Las-Heras S. Eur. J. Public Health 2022; ePub(ePub): ePub. |
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Abstract
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BACKGROUND: Intimate partner violence (IPV) against women is a serious health problem that affects pregnancy more frequently than other obstetric complications usually evaluated in antenatal visits. We aimed to estimate the accuracy of the Women Abuse Screening Tool-Short (WAST-Short) and the Abuse Assessment Screen (AAS) for the detection of IPV during and before pregnancy.
METHODS: Consecutive eligible mothers in 21 public primary health antenatal care centres in Andalusia (Spain) who received antenatal care and gave birth during January 2017-March 2019, had IPV data gathered by trained midwives in the first and third pregnancy trimesters. The index tests were WAST-Short (score range 0-2; cut-off 2) and AAS (score range 0-1; cut-off 1). The reference standard was World Health Organization (WHO) IPV questionnaire. Area under receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC), sensitivity and specificity with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated for test performance to capture IPV during and before pregnancy, and compared using paired samples analysis.
RESULTS: According to the reference standard, 9.5% (47/495) and 19.4% (111/571) women suffered IPV during and before pregnancy, respectively. For capturing IPV during pregnancy in the third trimester, the WAST-Short (AUC 0.73, 95% CI 0.63, 0.81), performed better than AAS (AUC 0.57, 95% CI 0.47, 0.66, P = 0.0001). For capturing IPV before pregnancy in the first trimester, there was no significant difference between the WAST-Short (AUC 0.69, 95% CI 0.62, 0.74) and the AAS (AUC 0.69, 95% CI 0.62, 0.74, P = 0.99).
CONCLUSIONS: The WAST-Short could be useful to screen IPV during pregnancy in antenatal visits.
Language: en |