INDIANAPOLIS, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- A team of U.S. and Canadian researchers say it may not be too helpful for a doctor to ask a woman: "You aren’t a victim of domestic abuse, are you?"
Richard Frankel of the Indiana University School of Medicine and Regenstrief Institute in Indianapolis, and colleagues, reviewed 871 doctor-patient interactions audio taped in an urban and a suburban emergency department. About one-third of these interactions involved screening for domestic violence.
"Questions were often framed in the negative, which elicited a negative or incomplete response," Frankel said in a statement. "Taking the time to be empathic, voicing concern, checking to be sure that the patient is not in any current danger, and reinforcing the importance of following up with referrals are all part of effective provider-patient communication that can stop domestic violence."
The study, published in the the Annals of Internal Medicine, found patients were more likely to disclose experiences with abuse when healthcare providers used open-ended questions to initiate the topic of domestic abuse and probed for abuse by asking at least one follow-up question.
