[Protocol to evaluate the effectiveness of a consciousness-raising and training intervention for primary care professionals, in order to improve detection of domestic violence (ISFVIDAP)].

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention aimed at primary care physicians and nurses to improve the detection of domestic violence.

DESIGN

Community intervention study with control, randomized in clusters, pragmatic, open, and with parallel groups.

SETTING

Primary care centres in Spain.

POPULATION

Primary care physicians and nurses from the entire country who agree to participate in the study. UNIT OF ANALYSIS: The basic care team (BCT) of doctor and nurse looking after a list is the unit of analysis for evaluating the number of cases detected; and their clinical records are the units of analysis for evaluating recorded cases (suspicion and/or confirmation of mistreatment).

SAMPLE SIZE

Sixty eight BCT in each group (136 in the 2 groups) and 1700 clinical records per group (25 per BCT). Altogether, they will cover some 130,000 women of 14 and over.

INTERVENTION

A short training programme with homogeneous training contents, aimed at raising the awareness of health professionals and teaching them how to identify risk factors, situations of special vulnerability and alarm signals. The programme also aims to provide health professionals with tools to make the clinical interview easier, when they suspect mistreatment and how to tackle a case once it is detected.

MEASUREMENTS

The main measurement will be the mean variation between intervention and control groups in the number of cases of domestic violence detected during the study, through specific recording and mean variation between the initial and final variations in each group.

ANALYSIS

A weighted student's t test or, if covariates need to be adjusted, a regression analysis will be used for comparison. All analyses will be based on intention to treat.