Systematic screening of intimate partner violence against women in general practice ; Dépistage systématique, en médecine générale, des violences conjugales faites aux femmes

Introduction: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major public health issue. IPV’s incidence is still underestimated. Victims are afraid to speak. General practitioners do not ask the question. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the impact of a systematic screening of IPV against women in general medicine. Method: We sent a survey to 174 general practitioners settled in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department. The family doctors answering the survey were recontacted and asked to conduct a systematic screening of IPV against women during 5 days using the WAST test. The data of this observational quantitative study were subjected to a descriptive analysis. Results: Eleven general practitioners participated in the systematic screening. Among the 263 women interviewed in 5 days, 14 have been declared by the family doctor as victims of IPV. (5.32%). Among the victims, 85% were victims of psychological abuse and 50% of sexual abuse. The most prevalent difficulties found for systematic screening were doing it among patients that were well-known for a long time and fear of intrusion into the private life. More than half of the doctors (54.5%) thought that a screening by warning signs would be enough. Discussion: Systematic screening of IPV has proven useful to reveal a higher rate of female victims (5.32%) than a passive screening (0.84%). However, doctors are reluctant to screen systematically. The main difficulties observed were prejudices and doctors’ personal barriers. There is a need to break the taboo concerning IPV in order to identify and take care of female victims. ; Introduction : la violence conjugale constitue un problème majeur de santé publique. L’incidence de violence conjugale reste sous-estimée. Les femmes victimes ont peur d’en parler. Les médecins généralistes ne posent pas la question. L’objectif de ce travail est d’évaluer l’impact d’un dépistage systématique de la violence conjugale envers les femmes en cabinet de médecine générale.Méthodes : un premier questionnaire a été envoyé à 174 médecins ...