Brown J B, Lent B, Brett P J, Sas G, Pederson L L
Department of Family Medicine, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.
Fam Med. 1996 Jun;28(6):422-8.
This study developed a screening tool for use by family physicians to identify and assess women patients experiencing emotional and/or physical abuse by their partner.
An initial set of eight questions developed for the Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) was completed by both abused and non-abused women. Participants were also asked to indicate their comfort in answering the questions in both research and family practice contexts. They also completed the Abuse Risk Inventory and a demographic questionnaire. Analysis of the WAST included 1) standard assessment of the validity and reliability of the measure and 2) examination of the efficacy of further reducing the number of questions on the WAST for screening purposes.
The final samples of abused (n = 24) and non-abused women (n = 24) differed significantly on a number of demographic and abuse variables. After eliminating one of the original items, a strong single factor structure was identified for the WAST that accounted for 85% of the total variance in responses to the WAST items. The WAST was found to be a highly reliable measure; coefficient alpha was estimated at.95. The scale also demonstrated construct and discriminant validity. The abused women reported being less comfortable responding to the WAST questions, in both the research and family practice contexts, than the non-abused women. The two WAST questions the abused women reported being most comfortable with were used to construct the WAST-Short for initial screening purposes. The WAST-Short correctly classified 100% of the non-abused women and 91.7% of the abused women.
The WAST demonstrated good reliability and validity and discriminated between abused and non-abused women. Development of the WAST-Short provides physicians with a relatively unobtrusive screening tool for assessing abuse. The use of additional WAST questions can be used to further explore the possibility that a woman patient is experiencing abuse by her partner. Further study includes field testing the WAST in the family practice setting.
本研究开发了一种筛查工具，供家庭医生用于识别和评估遭受伴侣情感和/或身体虐待的女性患者。
为妇女虐待筛查工具（WAST）最初设计的一组八个问题由受虐和未受虐妇女完成。参与者还被要求表明她们在研究和家庭医疗环境中回答这些问题时的舒适度。他们还完成了虐待风险量表和一份人口统计学问卷。对WAST的分析包括：1）对该测量方法的有效性和可靠性进行标准评估；2）检验为筛查目的进一步减少WAST上问题数量的效果。
受虐妇女（n = 24）和未受虐妇女（n = 24）的最终样本在一些人口统计学和虐待变量上有显著差异。在剔除原始项目之一后，确定了WAST的一个强大单因素结构，该结构占WAST项目回答总方差的85%。发现WAST是一种高度可靠的测量方法；估计系数α为0.95。该量表还显示出结构效度和区分效度。受虐妇女报告称，在研究和家庭医疗环境中，她们对回答WAST问题的舒适度低于未受虐妇女。受虐妇女报告最愿意回答的两个WAST问题被用于构建用于初步筛查的WAST-Short。WAST-Short正确分类了100%的未受虐妇女和91.7%的受虐妇女。
WAST显示出良好的可靠性和效度，能够区分受虐和未受虐妇女。WAST-Short的开发为医生提供了一种相对不显眼的评估虐待情况的筛查工具。使用额外的WAST问题可用于进一步探究女性患者是否正遭受伴侣虐待的可能性。进一步的研究包括在家庭医疗环境中对WAST进行现场测试。
