Woman Abuse Screening Tool Research Articles

Prevalence and associated factors of intimate partner violence against pregnant women who attend antenatal care in Denmark and Spain: A digital screening approach.

Intimate partner violence against women is a global health issue. Exposure to intimate partner violence during pregnancy leads to health-related problems for both the mother and the newborn. However, current knowledge on its occurrence varies widely and assessing the problem using standardized tools in different contexts is needed. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence and associated factors of IPV in pregnant women in Denmark and Spain through digital screening tools. A cross-sectional design was used to systematically screen for intimate partner violence among pregnant women attending antenatal care by using standardized digital screening tools, Woman Abuse Screening Tool and Abuse Assessment Screen. A total of 17 220 pregnant women in Denmark and 2222 pregnant women in Spain were invited to participate. The response rate was high in both countries (77.3% and 92.5%, respectively). Overall, 6.9% (n = 913) and 13.7% (n = 282) screened positive in Denmark and Spain, respectively. Logistic regressions estimated crude and adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence intervals of the relationship between sociodemographic variables and intimate partner violence. In both countries, being unmarried and lacking social support were risk factors of intimate partner violence. Additionally, in Denmark, pregnant women older than 40 years, unemployed or foreign, were at higher risk, while having higher educational levels was a protective factor. In Spain, not having a partner at the time of questionnaire completion and having at least one child prior to the current pregnancy were risk factors of intimate partner violence. Prevalence results and found associated factors contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the occurrence of intimate partner violence during pregnancy in Denmark and Spain, while highlighting the feasibility of digital systematic screening in antenatal settings.

Evidence of Internal Structure Validity, Measurement Invariance, Convergent Validity, Clinical Validity, and Reliability of the Woman Abuse Screening Tool in Peruvian Women.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most common type of violence committed against women and results in serious personal, familial, social, and economic consequences; thus, there is a need to detect IPV early. One test for detecting IPV is the Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST). The objective of the study was to obtain evidence of the validity of the WAST in terms of its internal structure, measurement invariance, convergent validity, clinical validity, and reliability. A total of 670 women who have or have had a heterosexual relationship participated in the study. The first stage included 513 adult women who partook of health services (M age = 35.5 years, SD age = 10 years). The second stage included 160 women, 80 diagnosed with IPV (M age = 34.2 years, SD age = 11.8 years) and 80 who were not (M age = 31.8 years, SD age = 11.5 years). We used multivariate and receiver operating characteristic curve analyses. We found evidence that the WAST demonstrates a one-dimensional structure; evidence of measurement invariance regarding cohabitation with the partner, length of the relationship, and age; evidence of convergent validity in terms of correlations with emotional dependence, self-compassion, expressive suppression, anxiety, and depression; and evidence of clinical validity in terms of the high probability of detecting positive cases of IPV. These properties support the use of the WAST for detecting possible cases of IPV, which will allow timely intervention. This instrument can also be used in larger studies on IPV in the Spanish-speaking population.

Intimate Partner Violence and Antenatal Depression Among Underserved Pregnant Women.

Introduction: Few studies have examined the associations of intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure during pregnancy and types of IPV with antenatal depression among underserved pregnant women. Methods: Data came from participants from a Healthy Start program in South Carolina between 2015 and 2019 (n = 1,629). The first two questions in the Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) were used to measure IPV exposure, that is, having a problematic relationship with their partner. Those who had IPV exposure were assessed with six additional questions of the WAST. Principal component analysis was conducted on the 8-item WAST data to identify underlying types of IPV exposure. Antenatal depression was defined as the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scores ≥16. Results: Participants were racially diverse (71% black, 21% white) with 85% Medicaid recipients. Nearly 12% of participants reported IPV exposure and 30% reported antenatal depression. The odds of having IPV exposure were higher among unmarried women, those with less than a high school education, and those who lacked family support. The odds of having antenatal depression were 2.5 times higher (95% CI: 1.9-3.5) among women with IPV exposure. After controlling for covariates, a one-point increase in the scores for psychological IPV (Factor 1) or a problematic relationship (Factor 3) was associated with increased odds of antenatal depression. Conclusion: This is one of the first studies to estimate the prevalence of IPV exposure using a proxy measure (a problematic relationship) among underserved U.S. pregnant women. Its positive association with antenatal depression suggests the utility of screening for a problematic relationship using a two-item WAST and providing assistance to those with IPV exposure.

Cultural adaptation to Spanish and psychometric analysis of the Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) in Peruvian adult women

BACKGROUND: Partner violence is a public health problem. In Peru, women with spouses are vulnerable to suffering it. The Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) is a widely recommended instrument for the early identification of these cases. Therefore, our objective was to adapt and analyse the psychometric properties of the WAST scale in adult Peruvian women. METHODOLOGY: This was an instrumental study, with a sample of 628 women who were in a marital condition of cohabitation or married at the time of the study. The mean age was 35 years (M = 35.58; SD = 10.92) and on average they were living with their partner for 9 years (M = 9.93; SD = 8.41). This sample was selected by non-probabilistic snowball sampling. The Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) were used. The validity of the internal structure was verified with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), convergent validity by correlation coefficients between the WAST, GAD-7 and PHQ-9, while reliability was verified using Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s Omega coefficient. RESULTS: Factorial analysis indicated that the one-dimensional model showed adequate goodness-of-fit indices (CFI = 0.998; TLI=0.991; RMSEA=0.103; SRMR=0.075), and reliability coefficients (α = 0.899 and ω = 0.916) were optimal. Additionally, the WAST showed strong external validity based on the relationship with the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scores (Rho > 0.50). CONCLUSIONS: The Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) scale demonstrated solid evidence of internal and external validity and optimal reliability in adult Peruvian women. Its use will benefit the early identification of victims of intimate partner violence in primary health care and further research.

Influence of Family Functioning and Communication on Intimate Partner Violence in Female University Students who Migrated to Metropolitan Lima

Objective: To determine the influence of family functioning and family communication as predictors of intimate partner violence in female university students who migrated internally to Metropolitan Lima in Peru.
 
 Material And Methods: Cross-sectional and predictive study, developed in a sample of n=310 young women, with an average age of 21 years, selected by non-probabilistic convenience sampling. The Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale (FACES-IV), the Family Communication Scale (FCS) and the Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) were used. Descriptive and inferential analyses were estimated for the relationship of variables, Pearson's coefficient and multiple linear regression to determine the prediction of intimate partner violence using SPSS v. 26.
 
 Results: We found significant inverse relationships between intimate partner violence and family communication, balanced cohesion, balanced flexibility and rigid flexibility. While the chaotic flexibility scale was directly related to intimate partner violence. Likewise, family communication and family functioning predict 13.1% of intimate partner violence, and as family communication increases, intimate partner violence decreases (β= -0.10; 95%CI: -0.16 to -0.03).
 
 Conclusion: Coming from families with balanced cohesion, rigid, balanced flexibility decrease the risk of being victims of intimate partner violence and dysfunctional family communication increases intimate partner violence predicting 13.1% of intimate partner violence. Further studies could increase the sample of rural and urban areas to confirm the approximation we report.

Love, jealousy, satisfaction and violence in young couples: A network analysis.

In recent years, couples have been affected by health measures related to COVID-19, a circumstance that forces us to examine couple interactions in terms of crucial variables of their functioning. In this sense, the present study aimed to examine the association between love, jealousy, satisfaction, and violence in young couples through network analysis. A total of 834 young people and adults between 18 and 38 years of age (Mean = 20.97, SD = 2.39) participated; 646 women (77.50%) and 188 men (22.50%), who completed the Sternberg's love scale (STLS-R), Brief Jealousy Scale (BJS), Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS) and Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST-2). A partial unregularized network was estimated using the ggmModSelect function. The Bridge Strength index was calculated because the aim was to identify the bridge nodes between the variables under study. The results reveal that two nodes of the love variable, Commitment, and Intimacy, had a direct and moderate relationship with the Satisfaction node. The latter is the central node in the network. However, in the male group, the most intense associations are in Satisfaction-Intimacy, Violence-Passion, Jealousy-Commitment. It is concluded that there are relevant connections between the nodes of the network, which invite further research on couple relationships after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The missed pandemic: Intimate partner violence in female mental-health-care-users during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)and interpersonal violence (IPV) in mentally ill women are often neglected andneed to be reviewed in light of the suggested increase in IPV during theCOVID-19 pandemic. We investigated the prevalence ofACEs and IPV in women living with severe mental illness (SMI) attending anoutpatient psychiatry service at a public hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, SouthAfrica, during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also describedthe association of ACEs with later IPV. A written survey comprising socio-demographic and clinical questionnaire, WHO Adverse Childhood ExperiencesInternational Questionnaire (ACE-IQ) for ACEs and the Women abuse screeningtool (WAST) for IPV, was completed by the 154 women with SMI. 141 (91.6%) participants scoredpositive for ACEs and 104 (67.5%) had experienced three or more ACEs. The mostprevalent forms of ACEs were emotionalneglect 72 (46.8%), one or no parents, parental separation, or divorce 104(67.5%), contact sexual abuse 67 (43.5%) and witnessing a household membertreated violently 67 (43.5%). Sixty-one (46.6%) participants reported IPV withscores 13 (indicative of abuse). On logistic regression,experience of three ormore ACEs was significantly associated with IPV in adulthood (aOR 3.3, 95% CI:1.2-9.6). Thehigh prevalence of IPV and association of IPV with cumulative ACEs reflectfirstly the hidden epidemic of domestic violence and secondly the vulnerabilityof those with ACEs to become victims of abuse later which is often missed in the care of women with SMI.

Cross-cultural adaptation of an intimate partner violence screening tool (WAST) for the Mozambican context; implications for more effective HIV prevention and treatment counseling

This article aims to translate and carry out the cross-cultural adaptation of the WAST - Woman Abuse Screening Tool, designed in English and used to track violence by an intimate partner. For adaptation, the conceptual equivalence of terms and semantics between the original version in English and the version translated into Portuguese was evaluated, the result of two translations and back-translation, discussion by a panel of experts, establishment of the preliminary version and finally testing in 88 participants of both sexes, selected in two health units at the level of primary health care. The cross-cultural adaptation resulted in an equivalence of concepts and semantics between the initial translation and the final back-translation. From the testing it was concluded that the version of WAST translated and adapted to the Mozambican context, has good internal consistency, the scales of WAST-Short (α = 0.813) such as those of IPV or WAST-Long (α = 0.834) are highly related. The two scales do not discriminate between men and women (WAST-Short p = 0.204, WAST-Long p = 0.271). Implications are discussed for more effective HIV prevention and treatment counseling.

Video Consultations and Safety App Targeting Pregnant Women Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence in Denmark and Spain: Nested Cohort Intervention Study (STOP Study).

Intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy is a public health issue with wide-ranging consequences for both the mother and fetus, and interventions are needed. Therefore, the Stop Intimate Partner Violence in Pregnancy (STOP) cohort was established with the overall aim to identify pregnant women exposed to IPV through digital screening and offer women screening positive for IPV a digital supportive intervention. The aim of this study was to (1) introduce the design and profile of the STOP cohort study, (2) assess the feasibility of implementing digital IPV screening among pregnant women, and (3) assess the feasibility of implementing a digital supportive intervention targeting pregnant women exposed to IPV. Pregnant women attending antenatal care in the Region of Southern Denmark and in Andalucía, Spain were offered digital screening for IPV using validated scales (Abuse Assessment Screen and Women Abuse Screening Tool). Women who screened positive were eligible to receive a digital supportive intervention. The intervention consisted of 3-6 video consultations with an IPV counselor and a safety planning app. In Denmark, IPV counselors were antenatal care midwives trained by a psychologist specialized in IPV, whereas in Spain, the counselor was a psychologist. Data collection started in February 2021 and was completed in October 2022. Across Denmark and Spain, a total of 19,442 pregnant women were invited for IPV screening and 16,068 women (82.65%) completed the screening. More women in Spain screened positive for exposure to IPV (350/2055, 17.03%) than in Denmark (1195/14,013, 8.53%). Among the women who screened positive, only 31.39% (485/1545) were eligible to receive the intervention with only 104 (21.4%) of these women ultimately receiving it. Digital screening for IPV among pregnant women is feasible in an antenatal care context in Denmark and Spain; however, a digital supportive intervention during pregnancy appears to have limited feasibility as only a minor subgroup of women who screened positive for eligibility received the intervention. More research is needed on how to best support pregnant women exposed to IPV if universal IPV screening is to be implemented in antenatal care.

Situational diagnosis of cases of gender-based violence

The present investigation had the intention of detecting cases of gender violence, which is known as physical, sexual, psychological, or social damage against a person. In various kinds of literature, it is referred to as any act of violence that causes damage to the health status of women. The prevalence of gender-based violence worldwide is high, affecting millions of women, which is why it is currently considered one of the main public health problems. For this study, the Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) questionnaire was carried out, which allows the detection of gender-based violence against women in the domestic environment. The main results show that 99 women out of the 223 surveyed have suffered from some type of abuse. violence, wherepsychological and economic violence is the most frequent.

Adaptation and validation of the woman abuse screening tool (WAST) in peruvian university students

Adaptation and validation of the woman abuse screening tool (WAST) in peruvian university students

What Is the Prevalence of Intimate Partner Violence and Traumatic Brain Injury in Fracture Clinic Patients?

Individuals in violent intimate relationships are at a high risk of sustaining both orthopaedic fractures and traumatic brain injury (TBI), and the fracture clinic may be the first place that concurrent intimate partner violence (IPV) and TBI are recognized. Both IPV and TBI can affect all aspects of fracture management, but prevalence of TBI and comorbid TBI and IPV is unknown. (1) What are the previous-year and lifetime prevalence of IPV and TBI in women presenting to an outpatient orthopaedic fracture clinic? (2) What are the conditional probabilities of TBI in the presence of IPV and the reverse, to explore whether screening for one condition could effectively identify patients with the other? (3) Do patients with TBI, IPV, or both have worse neurobehavioral symptoms than patients without TBI and IPV? The study was completed in the fracture clinic at a community Level 1 trauma center in Southern Ontario from July 2018 to March 2019 and included patients seen by three orthopaedic surgeons. Inclusion criteria were self-identification as a woman, age 18 years or older, and the ability to complete forms in English without assistance from the person who brought them to the clinic (for participant safety and privacy). We invited 263 women to participate: 22 were ineligible (for example, they were patients of a surgeon who was not on the study protocol), 87 declined before hearing the topic of the study, and data from eight were excluded because the data were incomplete or lost. Complete data were obtained from 146 participants. Participants' mean age was 52 ± 16 years, and the most common diagnosis was upper or lower limb fracture. Prevalence of IPV was calculated as the number of women who answered "sometimes" or "often" to direct questions from the Woman Abuse Screening Tool, which asks about physical, emotional, and sexual abuse in the past year or person's lifetime. The prevalence of TBI was calculated as the number of women who reported at least one head or neck injury that resulted in feeling dazed or confused or in loss of consciousness lasting 30 minutes or less on the Ohio State University Traumatic Brain Injury Identification Method, a standardized procedure for eliciting lifetime history of TBI through a 3- to 5-minute structured interview. Conditional probabilities were calculated using a Bayesian analysis. Neurobehavioral symptoms were characterized using the Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory, a standard self-report measure of everyday emotional, somatic, and cognitive complaints after TBI, with total scores compared across groups using a one-way ANOVA. Previous-year prevalence of physical IPV was 7% (10 of 146), and lifetime prevalence was 28% (41 of 146). Previous-year prevalence of TBI was 8% (12 of 146), and lifetime prevalence was 49% (72 of 146). The probability of TBI in the presence of IPV was 0.77, and probability of IPV in the presence of TBI was 0.36. Thus, screening for IPV identified proportionately more patients with TBI than screening for TBI, but the reverse was not true. Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory scores were higher (more symptoms) in patients with TBI only (23 ± 16) than those with fractures only (12 ± 11, mean difference 11 [95% CI 8 to 18]; p < 0.001), in those with IPV only (17 ± 11) versus fractures only (mean difference 5 [95% CI -1 to -11]; p < 0.05), and in those with both TBI and IPV (25 ± 14) than with fractures only (mean difference 13 [95% CI 8 to 18]; p < 0.001) or those with IPV alone (17 ± 11, mean difference 8 [95% CI -1 to 16]; p < 0.05). Using a brief screening interview, we identified a high self-reported prevalence of TBI and IPV alone, consistent with previous studies, and a novel finding of high comorbidity of IPV and TBI. Given that the fracture clinic may be the first healthcare contact for women with IPV and TBI, especially mild TBI associated with IPV, we recommend educating frontline staff on how to identify IPV and TBI as well as implementing brief screening and referral and universal design modifications that support effective, efficient, and accurate communication patients with TBI-related cognitive and communication challenges. Level II, prognostic study.

Domestic violence: A cross-sectional study among pregnant and postpartum women.

To assess the prevalence of domestic violence/intimate partner violence, aggressors, types of violence and associated factors in women who attend an antenatal and postnatal care service in a public hospital in Brazil. Cross-sectional study. We interviewed women attending antenatal and postpartum care services in a Brazilian public tertiary woman's hospital in Campinas, São Paulo, between July 2019 and September 2021. Data were collected through interviewer-administered questionnaires previously used in healthcare settings: Abuse Assessment Screen (AAS); Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST); Hurt, Insulted, Threatened with Harm and Screamed (HITS). We evaluated the relationship between the sociodemographic characteristics of women and domestic/intimate violence using bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses. Of the 600 pregnant and postpartum women interviewed, 138 (23%) had suffered any abuse. Some participants disclosed physical violence during pregnancy (2.3%) and during the last 12 months (5.3%). The partner was identified as the main aggressor in most of the cases (60%). When women had a partner, 3.5% reported domestic violence and 6.7% disclosed intimate partner violence during pregnancy or postpartum period. Women with non-white skin colour (OR=1.53; 95% CI 1.01-2.34; p=.048), gestational age ≤ 13 weeks (OR=3.41; 95% CI 1.03-11.25; p=.044) and in postpartum period (OR=2.81; 95% CI 1.32-5.99; p=.008) were more likely to experience domestic violence at some time in their lives. Women interviewed before the COVID-19 pandemic were more likely to disclose that they had suffered any abuse. Experience of violence during pregnancy and postpartum period was more frequent in women with non-white skin colour, in their first gestational trimester and in the postpartum period, and was more reported before the COVID-19 pandemic. Antenatal and postpartum care services could be safe places to support violence survivors. Pregnant and postpartum women are a vulnerable group to experiencing domestic violence/intimate partner violence. Violence can negatively affect women's and children's health and well-being. Antenatal and postpartum care should be considered as a moment to routinely inquiry women about past and current violence experiences. Regular contact among healthcare professionals and women during this period offers a window of opportunities for implementing psychosocial interventions among women at risk of violence. Healthcare providers (i.e., physicians, psychologists, social workers, nurses and midwives) have an important role in identifying survivors, offering support and providing quality information to women.

Prevalence of children witnessed violence in a pediatric emergency department.

Witnessed violence is a form of child abuse with detrimental effects on child wellbeing and development, whose recognition relies on the assessment of their mother exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV). The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of witnessed violence in a population of children attending a pediatric emergency department (ED) in Italy, by searching for IPV in their mother, and to define the characteristics of the mother–child dyads. An observational cross-sectional study was conducted from February 2020 to January 2021. Participating mothers were provided a questionnaire, which included the Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) and additional questions about their baseline data and health. Descriptive analysis was reported as frequency and percentage for the categorical variables and median and interquartile range (IQR) for quantitative variables. Mothers and children screened positive and negative for IPV and witnessed violence, respectively, were compared by the chi-square test or the exact Fisher test for categorical variables, and by the Wilcoxon-Mann–Whitney test for continuous variables. Out of 212 participating mothers, ninety-three (43.9%) displayed a positive WAST. Mothers tested positive were mainly Italian (71%, p 0.003), had a lower level of education (median age at school dropout 19, p 0.0002), and a higher frequency of unemployment (p 0.001) and poor personal health status (8.6%, p 0.001). The children of mothers tested positive showed a higher occurrence of abnormal psychological-emotional state (38.7%, p 0.002) and sleep disturbances (26.9%, p 0.04).Conclusion: IPV was common in a population of mothers seeking care for their children in a pediatric ED. What is Known:• Witnessed violence is a form of child abuse, usually inferred by their mothers’ exposure to IPV. The latter is suffered by one in three women worldwide.What is New:• This study shows a 43.9% prevalence of IPV among mothers attending an Italian pediatric ED.• Positive mother-child dyads displayed a higher frequency of poor mothers’ health status and children’s abnormal emotional state and sleep disturbances.

Intimate partner violence and COVID-19 among reproductive age women: A community-based cross-sectional survey, Ethiopia.

Introduction:Intimate partner violence is one of the most common psychological, physical, and sexual assaults toward women which suit the entire life of women, and nowadays, the magnitude accelerates due to coronavirus pandemic. Hence, this study was aimed to examine the prevalence of intimate partner violence and predictors during coronavirus among childbearing-age residents in Debre Berhan.Methods:A community-based cross-sectional survey was employed from 1 May to 1 July 2020. Eight items of women abuse screening tool were used to estimate intimate partner violence. Trained data collectors directly interview randomly selected participants. The data were entered using Epi-info V. 7 and analyzed using SPSS V. 23. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the prevalence of intimate partner violence and the frequency distribution of other variables. During bivariate analysis, predictor variables with a p-value less than 0.25 were nominated to further analysis. An adjusted odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval was used and a p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Result:A total of 700 participants were included with a response rate of 95.1%. The prevalence of intimate partner violence in the past single year was 19% with 95% confidence interval = 16.1–21.9. Besides, the prevalence of emotional (19.9%, 95% confidence interval = 16.9–22.8), sexual (10.9%, 95% confidence interval = 8.6–13.2) and physical (9.4%, 95% confidence interval = 7.3–11.6) violence was reported. Women with depressive symptoms, overweight, suicidal ideation, and body image disturbance were significantly associated with intimate partner violence, but not educational status, employment, income, stressful life events, lifetime alcohol use, suicidal attempt, and abortion.Conclusion and recommendation:Nearly one out of five interviewed participants had intimate partner violence. Being overweight, having poor body image, and having depression increase intimate partner violence. Special preventive measures and treatment, and other legal services should be taken to alleviate the predictor variables and intimate partner violence.

English

This article aims to translate and implement the cross-cultural adaptation of the WAST - Woman Abuse Screening Tool, designed in English and used to track violence by an intimate partner. For adaptation, the conceptual equivalence of terms and semantics between the original version in English and the version translated into Portuguese was evaluated, the result of two translations and back-translation, discussion by a panel of experts, establishment of the preliminary version and finally testing in 88 participants of both sexes, selected in two health units at the level of primary health care. The cross-cultural adaptation resulted in an equivalence of concepts and semantics between the initial translation and the final back-translation. From the testing it was concluded that the version of WAST translated and adapted to the Mozambican context, has good internal consistency, the scales of WAST-Short (&alpha; = 0.813) such as those of IPV or WAST-Long (&alpha; = 0.834) are highly related. The two scales do not discriminate between men and women (WAST-Short p = 0.204, WAST-Long p = 0.271).&nbsp; Implications are discussed for more effective HIV and violence prevention and treatment counseling. &nbsp; Key words:&nbsp;Violence, intimate partner, instruments, adaptation, testing, intimate partner violence, HIV prevention, treatment.

Validation of the French Women Abuse Screening Tool to routinely identify intimate partner violence.

Health care professionals strongly underestimate the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV), and a few of them think that they screen and refer victims appropriately for assistance. The aim of this study was to cross-culturally validate a French version of the Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST). A multicenter case-control study was performed in the forensic medicine unit of the University Hospital and two offices of the women's rights association in France. Abused and non-abused women self-completed the WAST and a questionnaire assessing their level of comfort in responding to the WAST during the study and during a hypothetical consultation with a physician in primary care. We analyzed the psychometric properties and screening performance of the WAST. Respondent acceptability was very good, with response rates exceeding 95%. The WAST had a good internal consistency (Cronbach α coefficient = 0.95). Its screening performance with a cut-off score of 5 was excellent: area under the ROC curve was 0.99, sensitivity 97.7%, specificity 97.1%, positive predictive value 97.2% and negative predictive value 97.7%. The levels of comfort were significantly lower among abused compared with non-abused women. Both groups of women were more comfortable answering the WAST during the study than in a hypothetical consultation. The French version of the WAST was found to be a well-accepted and valid screening tool for routine use in IPV. It may help health care professionals to detect women experiencing abuse early and to refer them more quickly to specific assistance.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) in male and female orthopaedic trauma patients: a multicentre, cross-sectional prevalence study

ObjectivesIdentify the proportion of patients attending fracture clinics who had suffered intimate partner violence (IPV) within the past year.DesignPowered cross-sectional study using validated participant self-reported questionnaires.Setting and participantsAdult trauma patients...

Prevalence and factors associated with partner violence among pregnant and puerperal women in Santiago, Chile

Violence against women (VAW) is a violation of women's fundamental rights and special attention must be paid during the gestational and postpartum period. To determine the prevalence of violence against women attending antenatal and postpartum controls in Primary Health Centers. The Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) for early detection of VAW was applied to 279 pregnant and 102 puerperal women attending five public primary health centers in metropolitan Santiago. The prevalence ofviolence against pregnant and puerperal women was 5.7 and 5.9%, respectively. In both groups, the factors associated with a greater risk of violence were being immigrants, a history of domestic violence, not having a supportive partner and alcohol consumption by the partner. Violence against these women is a multifactorial, complex and structural phenomenon, which involves the victim, the abuser and the entire social system. Primary health care level and health professionals can be key elements applying early detection strategies, timely referral mechanisms and bringing emotional support for victims.

Assessing sexual function in middle-aged sexually active Spanish women: a community-based study focusing on the intimate partner.

This study evaluated sexual function, the influence of the relationship with the intimate partner, and the factors related to sexual function in middle-aged Spanish women. The methodology entailed a cross-sectional study of 187 sexually active women aged 40-59 years. The participants were randomly recruited from primary public health care. They completed the 6-item Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI-6), the short-form Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST), and a sociodemographic questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential analysis was performed. The participants' median age was 49 years, 90.4% had a steady intimate partner, 54.5% were postmenopausal, 43.3% had chronic diseases, 12.3% reported alcohol abuse, and 35.8% smoked. The prevalence of low sexual function was 33.16% in all the women, and 44.12% in the postmenopausal women (an FSFI-6 total score ≤ 19 reflects low sexual function). WAST screening detected 17.65% cases of intimate partner violence (WAST total score ≤ 1), with low sexual function in 87.9%. Multiple linear regression analysis models revealed that the lowest total FSFI-6 scores (worst sexual function) were negatively associated with intimate partner violence (IPV), depression, hysterectomy, and associated female issues. The scores in the FSFI-6 domains (desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and pain) were linked to IPV (P < 0.001), except for lubrication (P < 0.001 postmenopausal). Low sexual function was more common in women who were positively screened for IPV. It was identified as a key factor, which contributes to deteriorating middle-aged women's sexual health.