Who gets screened during pregnancy for partner violence?

Context: Despite recommendations to screen prenatal care patients for partner violence, the prevalence of such screening is unknown.

Objectives: To estimate the statewide prevalence of partner violence screening during prenatal care among a representative sample of North Carolina women with newborns and to compare women screened for partner violence with women not screened.

Design, setting, and participants: This investigation examines data gathered through the North Carolina Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, a random sample of more than 2600 recently postpartum women who were delivered of newborns between July 1997 and December 1998.

Main outcome measures: Self-reports of violence, health service factors, and sociodemographic characteristics.

Analysis: The prevalence of screening was computed, and odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were used to examine bivariate and multivariable associations between being screened for partner violence and other factors.

Results: Thirty-seven percent of women reported being screened for partner violence during prenatal care. Logistic regression analysis found that women were more likely to be screened if they received prenatal care from (1) a public provider paid by a public source; (2) a private provider paid by a public source; or (3) a public provider paid by a private source.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that the majority of prenatal care patients in North Carolina are not screened for partner violence. Screening appears to be most highly associated with whether a woman is a patient in the public sector or the private sector, and with the source of payment for prenatal care. Arch Fam Med. 2000;9:1093-1099