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The value of intervening for intimate partner violence in South African primary care: project evaluation.

ABSTRACT: Objectives Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an important contributor to the burden of disease in South Africa. Evidence-based approaches to IPV in primary care are lacking. This study evaluated a project that implemented a South African protocol for screening and managing IPV. This article reports primarily on the benefits of this intervention from the perspective of women IPV survivors. Design This was a project evaluation involving two urban and three rural primary care facilities. Over 4-8 weeks primary care providers screened adult women for a history of IPV within the previous 24 months and offered referral to the study nurse. The study nurse assessed and managed the women according to the protocol. Researchers interviewed the participants 1 month later to ascertain adherence to their care plan and their views on the intervention. Results In total, 168 women were assisted and 124 (73.8%) returned for follow-up. Emotional (139, 82.7%), physical (115, 68.5%), sexual (72, 42.9%) and financial abuse (72, 42.9%) was common and 114 (67.9%) were at high/severe risk of harm. Adherence to the management plan ranged from testing for syphilis 10/25 (40.0%) to consulting a psychiatric nurse 28/58 (48.3%) to obtaining a protection order 28/28 (100.0%). Over 75% perceived all aspects of their care as helpful, except for legal advice from a non-profit organisation. Women reported significant benefits to their mental health, reduced alcohol abuse, improved relationships, increased self-efficacy and reduced abusive behaviour. Two characteristics seemed particularly important: the style of interaction with the nurse and the comprehensive nature of the assessment. Conclusion Female IPV survivors in primary care experience benefit from an empathic, comprehensive approach to assessing and assisting with the clinical, mental, social and legal aspects. Primary care managers should find ways to integrate this into primary care services and evaluate it further.

SUBMITTER: Joyner K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3236818 | biostudies-other | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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The value of intervening for intimate partner violence in South African primary care: project evaluation.

Joyner Kate K Mash Robert James RJ

BMJ open 20111206 2

Objectives Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an important contributor to the burden of disease in South Africa. Evidence-based approaches to IPV in primary care are lacking. This study evaluated a project that implemented a South African protocol for screening and managing IPV. This article reports primarily on the benefits of this intervention from the perspective of women IPV survivors. Design This was a project evaluation involving two urban and three rural primary care facilities. Over 4-8 ...[more]

PMID: 22146888

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Project description:Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) continues to be a serious problem worldwide. South Africa has a high prevalence of women experiencing IPV. Although much research reports on the prevalence rates, risk factors, and consequences of IPV, fewer studies report on how women deal with the experiences of IPV. Objective: This systematic review of the empirical literature aimed to identify and synthesize the best available evidence on women's experiences of coping with IPV in South Africa. Methods: A four-level search and retrieval strategy using PRISMA and JBI guidelines was conducted, which included critical appraisal, study selection, data extraction, and data synthesis. Ten studies met the eligibility criteria and were included in the review. They were assessed to meet a set threshold (7/10) based on the JBI Critical Appraisal Checklist for Qualitative Research. All studies were conducted between 2010 and 2020, conducted in South Africa, and used qualitative methodologies to accomplish the overall aim of investigating IPV experiences of women and their responses to it. Results: The total number of women included in the studies was 159. The data extraction yielded 49 findings of which 47 were aggregated into 14 categories and three themes: (1) help- and support-seeking coping, (2) emotional regulation coping, and (3) problem avoidance and distraction coping. Help- and support-seeking coping refers to women's responses when they seek instrumental aid, advice, comfort, and/or understanding from others. Emotional regulation includes responses of women in which their emotions were expressed or regulated. Problem avoidance and distraction coping represent responses of women in which they take efforts to avoid thinking about the problem situation and rather reshift their focus. Conclusion: Overall, this review found that a variety of coping responses are used by South African women experiencing IPV. The findings point to the need for understanding IPV and responses to it within a broader social context rather than just at the personal level. Approaching IPV at many levels may lead to a change in societal norms, better access to and delivery of services to IPV survivors, more functional family affairs, and personal well-being and improved quality of life.

Project description:Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant global problem, prevalent in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). IPV is particularly problematic during the perinatal and early postnatal period, where it is linked with negative maternal and child health outcomes. There has been little examination of profiles of IPV and early life adversity in LMIC contexts. We aimed to characterize longitudinal IPV and to investigate maternal maltreatment in childhood as a predictor of IPV exposure during pregnancy and postnatally in a low resource setting. This study was nested in the Drakenstein Child Health Study, a longitudinal birth cohort. Maternal IPV (emotional, physical and sexual) was measured at six timepoints from pregnancy to two years postpartum (n?=?832); sociodemographic variables and maternal maltreatment in childhood were measured antenatally at 28-32 weeks' gestation. Associations between maternal maltreatment in childhood and IPV latent class membership (to identify patterns of maternal IPV exposure) were estimated using multinomial and logistic regression. We observed high levels of maternal maltreatment during childhood (34%) and IPV during pregnancy (33%). In latent class analysis separating by IPV sub-type, two latent classes of no/low and moderate sexual IPV and three classes of low, moderate, and high emotional and physical IPV (separately) were detected. In combined latent class analysis, including all IPV sub-types together, a low, moderate and high exposure class emerged as well as a high antenatal/decreasing postnatal class. Moderate and high classes for all IPV sub-types and combined analysis showed stable intensity profiles. Maternal childhood sexual abuse, physical abuse and neglect, and emotional abuse predicted membership in high IPV classes, across all domains of IPV (aORs between 1.99 and 5.86). Maternal maltreatment in childhood was associated with increased probability of experiencing high or moderate intensity IPV during and around pregnancy; emotional neglect was associated with decreasing IPV class for combined model. Intervening early to disrupt this cycle of abuse is critical to two generations.

Project description:BACKGROUNDViolence against women by intimate partners remains unacceptably common worldwide. The evidence base for the assumed psychological impacts of intimate partner violence (IPV) is derived primarily from studies conducted in high-income countries. A recently published systematic review identified 13 studies linking IPV to incident depression, none of which were conducted in sub-Saharan Africa. To address this gap in the literature, we analyzed longitudinal data collected during the course of a 3-y cluster-randomized trial with the aim of estimating the association between IPV and depression symptom severity.METHODS AND FINDINGSWe conducted a secondary analysis of population-based, longitudinal data collected from 1,238 pregnant women during a 3-y cluster-randomized trial of a home visiting intervention in Cape Town, South Africa. Surveys were conducted at baseline, 6 mo, 18 mo, and 36 mo (85% retention). The primary explanatory variable of interest was exposure to four types of physical IPV in the past year. Depression symptom severity was measured using the Xhosa version of the ten-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. In a pooled cross-sectional multivariable regression model adjusting for potentially confounding time-fixed and time-varying covariates, lagged IPV intensity had a statistically significant association with depression symptom severity (regression coefficient b = 1.04; 95% CI, 0.61-1.47), with estimates from a quantile regression model showing greater adverse impacts at the upper end of the conditional depression distribution. Fitting a fixed effects regression model accounting for all time-invariant confounding (e.g., history of childhood sexual abuse) yielded similar findings (b = 1.54; 95% CI, 1.13-1.96). The magnitudes of the coefficients indicated that a one-standard-deviation increase in IPV intensity was associated with a 12.3% relative increase in depression symptom severity over the same time period. The most important limitations of our study include exposure assessment that lacked measurement of sexual violence, which could have caused us to underestimate the severity of exposure; the extended latency period in the lagged analysis, which could have caused us to underestimate the strength of the association; and outcome assessment that was limited to the use of a screening instrument for depression symptom severity.CONCLUSIONSIn this secondary analysis of data from a population-based, 3-y cluster-randomized controlled trial, IPV had a statistically significant association with depression symptom severity. The estimated associations were relatively large in magnitude, consistent with findings from high-income countries, and robust to potential confounding by time-invariant factors. Intensive health sector responses to reduce IPV and improve women's mental health should be explored.

Project description:BackgroundDespite the existence of ample literature dealing, on the one hand, with the integration of innovations within health systems and team learning, and, on the other hand, with different aspects of the detection and management of intimate partner violence (IPV) within healthcare facilities, research that explores how health innovations that go beyond biomedical issues-such as IPV management-get integrated into health systems, and that focuses on healthcare teams' learning processes is, to the best of our knowledge, very scarce if not absent. This realist evaluation protocol aims to ascertain: why, how, and under what circumstances primary healthcare teams engage (if at all) in a learning process to integrate IPV management in their practices; and why, how, and under what circumstances team learning processes lead to the development of organizational culture and values regarding IPV management, and the delivery of IPV management services.MethodsThis study will be conducted in Spain using a multiple-case study design. Data will be collected from selected cases (primary healthcare teams) through different methods: individual and group interviews, routinely collected statistical data, documentary review, and observation. Cases will be purposively selected in order to enable testing the initial middle-range theory (MRT). After in-depth exploration of a limited number of cases, additional cases will be chosen for their ability to contribute to refining the emerging MRT to explain how primary healthcare learn to integrate intimate partner violence management.DiscussionEvaluations of health sector responses to IPV are scarce, and even fewer focus on why, how, and when the healthcare services integrate IPV management. There is a consensus that healthcare professionals and healthcare teams play a key role in this integration, and that training is important in order to realize changes. However, little is known about team learning of IPV management, both in terms of how to trigger such learning and how team learning is connected with changes in organizational culture and values, and in service delivery. This realist evaluation protocol aims to contribute to this knowledge by conducting this project in a country, Spain, where great endeavours have been made towards the integration of IPV management within the health system.

Project description:Violence against women remains a significant public health problem globally. The majority of longitudinal studies documenting the negative impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) on the mental health of women come from high-income countries. The aim of this study was to investigate the longitudinal association between emotional, physical, or sexual IPV and depression symptoms among South African women in a prospective cohort study. Participants were 981 South African women enrolled in the Drakenstein Child Health Study-a cohort study investigating the early life determinants of child health. Interview data from four time-points (antenatal care visit, 6 months, 12 months, and 18 months postpartum) were included. The primary independent variable was self-reported emotional, physical, and sexual IPV in the past 12 months. Depressive symptoms were assessed at each time-point with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS); a cutoff score of ⩾13 was used to define significant depression symptoms. We used pooled-multivariable logistic regression models to determine associations between the three different forms of IPV and significant depression symptoms while adjusting for time-fixed and time-updated covariates. The mean age of the sample at antenatal care visit was 27 years (standard deviation = 6.0). In the adjusted model including all forms of IPV and adjusting for sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, substance use, and childhood trauma, emotional (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] =1.55, 95% confidence interval (CI): [1.02, 2.34]; p = .039)] and sexual (aOR = 2.02, 95% CI: [1.10, 3.72]; p < .001) IPV were significantly associated with significant depression symptoms. The relationship between physical IPV and significant depression symptoms was not statistically significant (aOR = 0.68, 95% CI: [0.44, 1.05]; p = .485). Our study confirms findings from high-income countries of the association between IPV and depressive symptoms among women in South Africa. Routine screening for IPV, including emotional IPV and intervention programs for IPV among women, is needed in South Africa.

Dataset Information

The value of intervening for intimate partner violence in South African primary care: project evaluation.

Publications

The value of intervening for intimate partner violence in South African primary care: project evaluation.

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