177349 A Realist Review: Screening & Identification Interventions for Victims of Intimate Partner Violence in Health Care Settings

Tuesday, October 28, 2008: 2:30 PM

Patricia O'Campo, PhD , Centre for Research on Inner City Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Farah Ahmad, MBBS, MPH, PhD , Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major public health issue and has numerous adverse consequences including mortality, physical and mental health morbidity, excess physician and emergency room visits and hospitalizations. The thrust of recent health care initiatives focuses on the screening and identification of IPV to improve early detection and referrals to health and social services. At the same time, recent Cochrane-style systematic reviews have concluded that there is currently insufficient evidence supporting the benefits of IPV screening interventions. Missing from current reviews is evidence related to the process and practice of screening interventions by healthcare professionals in various healthcare contexts – an important but missing piece for policy makers, program planners, and providers within health sectors.

Purpose: To re-evaluate the evidence on program mechanisms of IPV screening and identification by health care providers, within a healthcare context, by addressing how IPV screening programs work, for whom they work, and in what circumstances.

Methods: Unlike conventional Cochrane style systematic reviews, we utilize Ray Pawson's Realist Review approach with its focus on program mechanisms and inclusion of various types of evidence such as scholarly literature (quantitative & qualitative), key documents and interviews with key informants. Outcomes from the systematic review will yield information about why and how programs work to inform the design of policies and programs.

Results: Our funded project is currently in the evidence appraisal phase. At the conference we will present our findings on best practices along with ineffective processes for IPV screening in health care settings.

Learning Objectives:
Identify and apply important information regarding how and why intimate partner violence programs work. List for whom the programs work. Discuss partner violence programs in various health care contexts.

Keywords: Violence, Access and Services

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have contributed to the conceptual design of the research question, its methods and the synthesis of evidence.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.