Evaluation of domestic violence cases intervened by ministry of health of Turkey Ankara provincial emergency medical services teams before the coronavirus pandemic and in the first year of the pandemic ((10 March 2019-09 March 2020 and 10 March 2020-09 March 2021)

Domestic violence against women is one of the common public health problems worldwide. 26%-28% of women aged 20-44 are exposed to physical and/or sexual violence at least once in their lives. The coronavirus pandemic, which affected the whole world in early 2020, has worsened the situation for victims of domestic violence. "Stay at home" orders aiming to prevent the spread of the pandemic, increased stress and economic difficulties due to the pandemic have made it more difficult to detect and intervene in cases. The purpose of this research is to examine cases of domestic violence against women intervened by Ankara Provincial Pre-hospital Emergency Services ambulances before and during the Coronavirus pandemic. For this purpose, the interventions made by Ankara Provincial Pre-Hospital Ambulance Service ambulances were evaluated one year retrospectively and one year prospectively, starting from March 10, 2020, the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic in Turkey. Forms of domestic violence cases targeting women who received intervention between these dates were examined in terms of criteria such as case-related variables (age and gender), environmental characteristics (location, rural urban, time), service characteristics (on-site intervention, transfer to hospital). In the study, the number of women exposed to domestic violence was 1032 before the pandemic and 752 during the pandemic. The average age of the cases treated was 36.4±14.9 in the pre-pandemic period and 35.6±13.5 in the pandemic period. The research results are similar to other countries in the world, and similar to the use of ambulance services, cases of violence against women using ambulance services have also decreased. It was considered that this situation may be due to pandemic conditions and stay-at-home orders. Developing a system based on inter-institutional coordination to prevent domestic violence against women will be effective in reducing and preventing the number of cases.