Partner violence and medical encounters - African-American women's perspectives

Objective: To examine the relationship between intimate partner violence (I PV) victimization and patient satisfaction with medical encounters among an African-American population. Design: Cross-sectional, self-administered, anonymous survey. Setting: Community-based, primary care center. Patients: Consecutive Africa n-American women recruited from an urban health center. A total of 102 wome n provided sufficient information to reveal whether they were currently exp eriencing IPV and to allow us to assess their experiences in their most rec ent primary care encounter. Measurements: Patients' perceptions of their most recent encounter using qu estions adopted from the Medical Interview Satisfaction Scale and Consultat ion Satisfaction Questionnaire. We used the Conflicts Tactics Scale, supple mented with questions measuring sexual violence and emotional abuse, to ass ess IPV "in the past year." Results: Women who reported current IPV rated several aspects of the encoun ter more negatively than did women who did. not report current abuse. The I PV victims were less likely to report that they felt respected and accepted during the encounter, and they provided lower ratings of the quality of co mmunication with their providers. Conclusions: It is unclear why victims of partner violence experience medic al encounters as less satisfactory. Researchers need to expand studies of m edical encounters as experienced by abused women to determine whether IPV s tatus adversely affects general medical care.