Testing Methods of Screening for Woman Abuse in Health Care Settings.

Recent reviews have identified the need for additional high quality exploratory and evaluative research to understand 1) the actual impact on all women of instituting mass screening procedures versus using indicator-based approaches to identifying woman abuse and 2) the extent to which early identification through screening -- either universal or indicator-based is effective in preventing or ameliorating important outcomes. This is a critical first step in developing a larger randomized controlled trial (RCT) which examines the effectiveness of screening in preventing woman abuse, improving quality of life and other associated outcomes. This study prepares for the RCT by testing the optimal method of administration for the two screening instruments that will be used in the RCT. The administration formats are: computer-based screen, paper and pencil screen and face-to-face screen. They study will also determine recruitment rates.