Lj. Morrison et al., Improving the emergency department detection rate of domestic violence using direct questioning, J EMERG MED, 19(2), 2000, pp. 117-124
The purpose of this study was to compare the domestic violence (DV) rate id
entified with simple direct questioning to a historical cohort of patients
receiving routine emergency department (ED) care. One thousand ED charts of
female patients were retrospectively reviewed. Each patient in the prospec
tive cohort was asked five DV specific questions. The historical cohort rev
ealed a DV prevalence rate of 0.4%. The prospective study group of 302 pati
ents identified 11 (3.6%) patients who admitted to acute DV on direct quest
ioning. Ten of these patients accepted help. Twenty (6.6%) were identified
as probable DV and 12 (4%) admitted to past violence. The total number of v
ictims of DV, past, present, and probable was 43 (14.2%). This increase in
detection from 0.4% (4/1000) to 14.2% (43/302) is significant at p < 0.001.
Only 1.3% of patients refused to participate in the DV specific questions.
The conclusion of the study indicated that the use of simple, direct quest
ioning significantly improves the detection rate of DV in the ED. (C) 2000
Elsevier Science Inc.