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Stacey B. Plichta, ScD1, Elizabeth Vogel, MS, PhD1, and Teresa W. Babineau, MD2. (1) College of Health Sciences, Old Dominion University, 129 Spong Hall, Norfolk, VA 23529, 757 683-4989, splichta@odu.edu, (2) Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA 23529
Purpose This study examines the acute and chronic health care needs of women seeking refuge in a domestic violence shelter. The battered women's shelter movement in the U.S. began as a feminist grassroots effort in the 1970's and grew to over 1800 places sheltering 200,000+ women per year. Abused women have worse physical and mental health status than other women but few studies have examined the health care needs of women in shelter.
Methods 65 women sought medical care from a family medicine MD and residents who work in an urban shelter one day each month. Their medical records were abstracted with no identifiers and entered into an SPSS dataset. Women were predominately African-American (71%) with an average age of 35.2 years (80% are under 44). 60% were known to have children and 18% were pregnant or postpartum. This study was approved by the Medical School IRB.
Results Women presented with many conditions, including injuries & pain (32%), mental health (19%), upper respiratory infections (19%), gynecological concerns (16%), hypertension (15%) and dermatological issues (8%). Half (51% )had one or more preexisting diseases including: hypertension (32%), asthma (22%), arthritis (19%), diabetes (9%) and seizure disorders (5%).
Conclusions Shelters provide an invaluable resource to women who are harmed by interpersonal violence. However, due to a lack of resources, few can help women address their health concerns. These results clearly indicate a need for further work towards models that bring medical care to abused women in shelter.
Learning Objectives:
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.