Barriers That Impede Primary Health Care Physicians from Screening Women for Domestic Violence at Makkah Almukarramah City

Abstract

Background: Nowadays, violence against women represents a major public health concern despite the efforts to raise awareness about it at the local and the global level. Doctors have a crucial role to play in detecting violence against women but they are confronted to many barriers. Objective: To identify the barriers that impede physicians from screening women for domestic violence. Subjects and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a questionnaire to collect data from 62 primary health care physicians at Makah Almukarramah city. Results: More than a half of the physicians, working at primary health centers at Makkah and who participated in our survey, dealt with a case of a women abused by her partner. Many participants agreed that there were barriers that impeded them from screening violence like insufficient training, feeling of embarrassment, shame of asking question about abuse and fear of revenge by the husband or relatives. Conclusion: Implementing training program with intervention could help in managing and preventing violence against women.