PHYSICIANS PERCEPTIONS OF AND APPROACHES TO WOMAN ABUSE

OBJECTIVE To discover whether family physicians who go through residen cy training and The College of Family Physicians of Canada's (CFPC) ce rtification process are more responsive than other physicians to woman abuse, whether thy perceive and approach such abuse more appropriatel y, and whether they seek out more education on the subject. DESIGN A n ational survey using a pretested 43-item mailed questionnaire to exami ne perceptions of and approaches to detection and management of woman abuse.SETTING Canadian family and general practices. PARTICIPANTS A cr oss-sectional sample of 1574 family physicians and general practitione rs, of whom 963 (61%) volunteers responded. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Demo graphic variables, perceptions of abuse, methods of diagnosing and man aging woman abuse. RESULTS Most respondents agreed thy could not diagn ose and treat woman abuse effectively, regardless of certification sta tus. They indicated they were detecting only 33% of cases. Certificant s of CFPC, in particular residency-trained certificants, were more lik ely to think that they should be diagnosing woman abuse than noncertif icants; they were also more likely to help victims by referring them t o specialists and other agencies. Certificants were also more likely t o think thy should be treating these patients themselves: and that the y were not adequately trained to do so. Although most respondents thou ght they needed more education, certificants were more likely to know of relevant courses, to have attended such courses, and to have read b ooks or articles on the topic. CONCLUSIONS Being a certificant is not associated with perceived skills in diagnosing and treating woman abus e, but is associated with an increased awareness of the problem. Certi ficants know that education on woman abuse is available.