Paper
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
602
Phone Intervention to Increase Safety in Abused Women: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial
Anne B. Woods, PhD, CNM1, Jacquelyn C. Campbell, RN, PhD, FAAN1, Dan Ford, MD, MPH2, and Tameka Gillum, PhD3. (1) School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA, (2) School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA, (3) School of Public Health, University of Massachusettes Amherts, Amherst, MA, USA
| Learning Objective #1: discuss the effect of a brief nurse-managed telephone intervtion on safety promoting behaviors in women abused by an intimate partner. |
| Learning Objective #2: explore the bio-psycho-social factors associated with practicing safety behaviors in women abused by an intimate partner. |
Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant national public health problem, with serious long-term negative physical and mental health effects that contribute to an increased IPV prevalence rate among primary care patients. There is a serious lack of evidence-based IPV interventions in the primary care setting and no studies were identified that examined the effect of physical and mental health symptoms on women’s ability to access resources or to increase safety promoting behaviors. Objective: To test a brief telephone intervention to increase safety behaviors in a primary care sample of women currently abused by an intimate partner. Method: A randomized controlled trial of a nurse-managed, community health worker brief telephone intervention was conducted at an inner city primary care clinic for the uninsured. Sample size of 20 in the control and 20 in the intervention group was based on power of .8 and alpha of .05. Results: There were no significant socioeconomic differences in the control or treatment groups. Women in the intervention group reported practicing a significantly greater number of safety-promoting behaviors than women in the control group (13 vs. 8, p = .000). Additionally, women in the intervention group accessed more partner violence community resources and reported less severe pain-fatigue-depression symptoms than women in the control group. Discussion: Implementation of this brief phone intervention may increase safety for women in currently abusive relationships.