Emergency department-based interventions for women suffering domestic abuse: a critical literature review

Domestic abuse represents a serious public health and human rights concern. Interventions to reduce the risk of abuse include staff training and standardized documentation improving detection and adherence to referral pathways. Interventional studies have been conducted in primary care, maternity and outpatient settings. Women disclosing abuse in emergency departments differ from women attending other healthcare settings, and it is unclear whether these interventions can be transferred to the emergency care setting. This review examines interventional studies to evaluate the effectiveness of emergency department-based interventions in reducing domestic abuse-related morbidity. Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Cochrane Library were searched, according to prespecified selection criteria. Study quality was assessed using the Jadad scale. Of 273 search results, nine were eligible for review. Interventions involving staff training demonstrated benefits in subjective measures, such as staff knowledge regarding abuse, but no changes in clinical practice, based on detection and referral rates. When staff training was implemented in conjunction with supporting system changes – for example, standardized documentation for assessment and referral – clinically relevant improvements were noted. Interventions centred around staff training are insufficient to bring about improvements in the management and, thus, outcome of patients suffering abuse. Instead, system changes, such as s...
Source: European Journal of Emergency Medicine - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Review Articles Source Type: research