Indicators of exposure to wife abuse.

Data collected via a telephone survey of 406 randomly selected married (including common-law) women were analyzed with respect to 30 potential indicators of exposure to wife abuse. Women who reported exposure to wife abuse within the previous year were more likely than women free of abuse to have terminated their marriage, to have visited an emergency room, to have been hospitalized, and to have contacted public health nurses, psychiatrists, and psychologists, in the preceding year. They also were more likely to have sustained large bruises, lacerations, sprains or strains, and to have more frequent headaches and backaches, psychiatric morbidity, and alcoholism than women free of abuse. The abused women were likely to have more education than their partners, relatively lower total household incomes, and partners who were unemployed. Knowledge of significant indicators can facilitate the identification of women who have experienced wife abuse and lead to the development of more effective screening protocols.