Accuracy of 3 Brief Screening Questions for Detecting Partner Violence in the Emergency Department

Design.\p=m-\Prospectivesurvey. Setting.\p=m-\Twourban, hospital-based emergency departments. Participants.\p=m-\Of491 women presenting during 48 randomly selected 4-hour time blocks, 322 (76% of eligible patients) participated. Respondents had a median age of 36 years; 19% were black, 45% white, and 30% Hispanic, while 6% were of other racial or ethnic groups; 54% were insured. Interventions.\p=m-\Wedeveloped a partner violence screen (PVS), consisting of 3 questions about past physical violence and perceived personal safety. We administered the PVS and 2 standardized measures of partner violence, the Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA) and the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS). Main Outcome Measures.\p=m-\Sensitivity,specificity, and predictive values of the PVS were compared with the ISA and the CTS as criterion standards. Results.\p=m-\Theprevalence rate of partner violence using the PVS was 29.5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 24.6%-34.8%). For the ISA and CTS, the prevalence rates were 24.3% (95% CI, 19.2%-30.1%) and 27.4% (95% CI, 21.7%-33.6%), respectively. Compared with the ISA, the sensitivity of the PVS in detecting partner abuse was 64.5%; the specificity was 80.3%. When compared with the CTS, sensitivity of the PVS was 71.4%; the specificity was 84.4%. Positive predictive values ranged from 51.3% to 63.4%, and negative predictive values ranged from 87.6% to 88.7%. Overall, 13.7% of visits were the result of acute episodes of partner violence. Conclusion.\p=m-\Threebrief directed questions can detect a large number of women who have a history of partner violence. JAMA. 1997:277:1357-1361