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UNCG Home > School of Health & Human Performance > Center for Women´s Health and Wellness

Past Research: Health Care Response to Battered Women

Clinic-based assessment and referral for intimate partner violence (IPV) can be an effective means to improve abused women´s health and safety; yet few interventions have been evaluated. This study was designed to evaluate two different clinic-based interventions.

Nurses at six clinics in rural South Carolina implemented IPV screening of women ages 18 and older using the Women´s Experiences with Battering (WEB) Scale along with questions about physical and sexual assault.

Two interventions were offered at different clinics:

• Referral to an on-site IPV specialist
• A seven-session Empowerment focused patient education intervention conducted by on-site clinical counselors.

We are in the 5th year of this 5 year study. To date 3,819 have been offered the chance to participate and 73% agreed, with older women more likely to refuse. 25% were identified as being abused in the past 5 years: 14.7% reported current battering and 5.7% reported being physically assaulted; 9% reported partner violence in a prior relationship.

Abused women reported relatively high help-seeking behaviors even prior to the intervention:
In the past 6 months:

• 34% had talked with their doctor about abuse
• 50% had called police
• 19% had called the crisis hotline
• 10% had gone to a shelter
• 80% had left their partner at least once

We are finding that assessing women for IPV in primary health care clinics represents an important but challenging opportunity for providing services to women experiencing IPV. This study is funded by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Page updated: 28-Apr-2008

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