ACCURACY OF 3 BRIEF SCREENING QUESTIONS FOR DETECTING PARTNER VIOLENCE IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT

Objective.-To devise a brief screening instrument to detect partner vi olence and to partially validate this screen against established instr uments. Design.-Prospective survey. Setting.-Two urban, hospital-based emergency departments. Participants.-Of 491 women presenting during 4 8 randomly selected 4-hour time blocks, 322 (76% of eligible patients) participated. Respondents had a median age of 36 years; 19% were blac k, 45% white, and 30% Hispanic, while 6% were of other racial or ethni c groups; 54% were insured. Interventions.-We developed a partner viol ence screen (PVS), consisting of 3 questions about past physical viole nce and perceived personal safety. We administered the PVS and 2 stand ardized measures of partner violence, the Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA) and the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS). Main Outcome Measures.-Sensitivi ty, specificity, and predictive values of the PVS were compared with t he ISA and the CTS as criterion standards. Results.-The prevalence rat e of partner violence using the PVS was 29.5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 24.6%-34.8%). For the ISA and CTS, the prevalence rates were 24 .3% (95% CI, 19.2%-30.1%) and 27.4% (95% CI, 21.7%-33.6%), respectivel y. Compared with the ISA, the sensitivity of the PVS in detecting part ner abuse was 64.5%; the specificity was 80.3%. When compared with the CTS, sensitivity of the PVS was 71.4%; the specificity was 84.4%. Pos itive predictive values ranged from 51.3% to 63.4%, and negative predi ctive values ranged from 87.6% to 88.7%. Overall, 13.7% of visits were the result of acute episodes of partner violence. Conclusion.-Three b rief directed questions can detect a large number of women who have a history of partner violence.