Physician detection of family violence. Do buttons worn by doctors generate conversations about domestic abuse?

Family violence is ubiquitous in our society and, thus, is encountered in all medical practices. The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether physicians wearing buttons with an anti-abuse message have more conversations about violence compared with physicians not wearing such buttons. Six of 11 family practice residents wore Minnesota Medical Association buttons that invited conversations about abuse. For four weeks, all 11 residents recorded daily the number of conversations about violence that occurred in the medical setting. Analyses comparing the two groups showed that the physicians wearing buttons had significantly more conversations than those not wearing buttons (c2 = 9.040, p < 0.005). Physicians wearing buttons had a higher percentage of days with conversations about domestic violence than physicians without buttons (c2 = 7.695, p < 0.01). From the significant p-values documented, we conclude that wearing the buttons increases conversations about family violence and makes physicians more consistent in talking about violence with patients.