NCJ Number
200763
Journal
Violence and Victims Volume: 18 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2003 Pages: 131-141
Date Published
April 2003
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This article assessed the accuracy, reliability, and validity of a new scale that measures ongoing intimate partner violence (IPV).
Abstract
Intimate partner violence (IPV) has reached epidemic proportions and is considered a public health issue by many professionals. Although many screening tools have been developed to assess the incidence of IPV, the authors assert that no accurate screening tool exists for the measurement of ongoing IPV. One scale, the Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA), is reliable and asks about present IVP, but the scale is cumbersome and difficult to administer in an urgent care clinical setting. Similarly, another screening tool, the AAS, reliably measures “present” IVP; the problem is that “present” IVP is defined by the AAS as abuse that has occurred during the past year. As such, the authors developed a new screening tool, referred to as the Ongoing Abuse Screen (OAS), and hypothesized that the OAS would more accurately reflect ongoing violence when compared to the AAS. The OAS, ISA, and AAS were administered to 856 patients at an emergency care setting during its busiest hours. Comparisons were made between the AAS and OAS scales and the ISA. Results of statistical analyses revealed that the accuracy, positive predictive value, and positive likelihood ratio for the OAS were 84 percent, 58 percent, and 6.0, respectively. The same measures for the AAS were 59 percent, 33 percent, and 2.0, respectively. Thus, the OAS proved to be more accurate, had a better positive predictive value, and was three times more likely to accurately reflect ongoing IVP than the AAS. However, the authors concluded that the OAS was not predictive enough of ongoing IPV; a new scale was developed based in the ISA that may prove to be more accurate at measuring ongoing IVP. The new scale is referred to as the Ongoing Violence Assessment Tool (OVAT). The retrospective accuracy of the OVAT scale was better than any of the prior screening tools at measuring ongoing IPV. Future research should focus on whether emergency personnel can evaluate scenes for ongoing IVP and compare the results of their observations to respondent’s answers on screening tools for IVP. Tables, references