CANADIAN FAMILY PHYSICIANS AND GENERAL-PRACTITIONERS PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR EFFECTIVENESS IN IDENTIFYING AND TREATING WIFE ABUSE

The authors attempted to determine the perceptions of Canadian family physicians and general practitioners regarding their effectiveness in identifying and treating abused female patients. A national sample of 963 family physicians and general practitioners were surveyed by quest ionnaire concerning their knowledge, attitudes, detection, treatment, and continuing medical education needs regarding this issue. Most resp ondents estimated that 15% of their female patients are victims of wif e abuse; more than 50% believed that they failed to identify 30% of ca ses or more. Physician age and sex differences did not correlate with detection rates, but did correlate with treatment options. Finally, al though the most common reasons cited for failing to detect eases were patients' unresponsiveness, lack of initiative, or infrequent visits, a majority of the physicians wanted more continuing education concerni ng wife abuse.