Prevalence of intimate partner violence in orthopaedic trauma
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) in orthopaedic trauma presenting at a UK regional trauma & orthopaedic centre
IRAS ID
167864
Contact name
Arpit Jariwala
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Tayside Medical Science Centre
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
We propose a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study to identify the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV, also known as domestic abuse) amongst women presenting to orthopaedic fracture clinics.
At each fracture clinic where data collection is taking place, all female patients 18 years or over will be screened for eligibility. If they present to the clinic unaccompanied by any other person, they will be given a copy of the Participant Information Sheet (PIS) and will indicate to clinic staff if they are willing to participate by handing them a tear-off slip included in the PIS. After their clinic appointment, they will then be approached by the Principal Investigator (PI) and interviewed in privacy. The PI will describe the content of the questionnaire and screen the participant according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. If found unsuitable, the participant will be thanked for their time and excluded from the study. The participant will be left alone to complete the questionnaire with the PI remaining outside to answer any questions or offer support.
The questionnaire is a self-reported questionnaire assessing multiple indicators of intimate partner abuse previously validated in a multicentre study (Sprague et al., 2013). This questionnaire will include the Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) and the Partner Violence Screen (PVS), in addition to several screening questions and general patient demographics including age, ethnicity, injury and yearly income. Once the questionnaire is completed, it will be left in the interview room in a sealed envelope within a secure container. The participant will be asked to seal within the envelope a document containing the clinic date and a brief surgical description of the patient’s injury to aid in identifying injuries associated with abuse and allow removal of records should a patient wish to withdraw consent at a later date. No patient identifiable details will be recorded.
A copy of the PIS will be left in the interview room and this will contain further information on the study and details on how to contact the Chief Investigator (CI). This document will also contain contact numbers for the local police domestic abuse liaison officer and local branch of Women's Aid should the participant want further information and/or support. The PI will also be available to provide support and assistance should a new disclosure of intimate partner violence be made.
Completed questionnaires will be marked with the clinic date and contain no patient identifiable information. There will be no way of contacting the participant or their GP, hence assuring patients complete anonymity with participation. Data will be analysed in isolation and compared to data from a recent multicentre study with a similar method and questionnaire. Results will be presented locally and potentially nationally via conferences and a peer-reviewed publication.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 1
REC reference
16/NS/0029
Date of REC Opinion
5 Apr 2016
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion