Background: Limited information is available about the natural history of domestic violence (DV). Objective: Identify abuse characteristics for a group of recently abused women including extent, frequency and severity of abuse. Methods: Consecutive adult English-speaking females in an urban emergency department were screened for DV using the Abuse Assessment Screen during a convenience sample of shifts. Abused women and a random selection of female controls were enrolled. Women completed a self-report survey at time 0, one month and three months. Results: 67 abused women (study group) and 100 controls completed the initial survey. Follow-up rates at three months were 72% for the study group and 75% for controls. In the study group, 42% reported current abuse and 36% had been abused within one week; 12% had not been abused for more than 6 months. At three months, 24% reported current abuse, 16% had been abused within one week and 20% had not been abused for more than 6 months. Initially, women reported an episode of abuse at least once a week in 48% of cases. This diminished to 25% at three months. The most common abuses noted were name-calling (91%) put-downs (87%) and threats (87%). Other abuses included being hit (78%) fractures (36%) knife/gun wound (13%) stalking (58%) and forced sex (51%). Conclusion: These results may describe the short-term natural history of DV, may be the result of interventions the participants experienced (including this study), and/or may be due to characteristics related to the participant's own self-selection into the study.
Learning Objectives: 1. Describe the frequency and severity of abuse experienced by an emergency department sample of women over a 3 month interval 2. Recognize rates of the most severe forms of domestic violence suffered by a sample of abused women. 3. List 5 of the most frequent forms of abuse perpetrated by abusers
Keywords: Domestic Violence,
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.