Screening Women and Elderly Adults for Family and Intimate Partner Violence: A Review of the Evidence for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force
Annals of Internal MedicinePublished 2 March 2004
Heidi D Nelson, Peggy Nygren, Yasmin McInerney, Jonathan D. Klein
Citations290
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score3.38
SNIP3.27
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TL;DR
This report is an update on the current literature on family and intimate partner violence and focuses on studies of the performance of screening instruments designed for the clinical setting and the effectiveness of clinical-based interventions for women and elderly adults.
Abstract
Although the literature on family and intimate partner violence is extensive, few studies provide data on detection and management to guide clinicians.
Keywords
Social Sciences
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147 Citations2001Nancy Glass, Stephen Dearwater +1 more
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OJIN The Online Journal of Issues in NursingIntimate Partner Violence in African American Women
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68 Citations2002Colleen T. Fogarty, Judith Belle Brown
The Spanish version of the WAST successfully discriminated between Spanish-speaking nonabused and abused women, and a short form using the two most reliable questions was developed as a more rapid screening tool for office use.
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