Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of family medicine and emergency medicine residents in Adana on intimate partner violence against women

Objective: Violence against women is a significant health problem. Healthcare professionals need to be knowledgeable, competent, and vigilant to manage intimate partner violence against women (IPV). This cross-sectional descriptive study aims to determine the current knowledge, attitude, and practice situation of the family medicine and emergency medicine residents in our region on IPV. Materials and methods: Data were collected online and in written format via a sociodemographic form, Physician Readiness to Manage Intimate Partner Violence Survey (PREMIS), and The Scale of Attitudes and Practices of Healthcare Workers on IPV. Results: Data of the residents who agreed to participate were analyzed (n=177, 84.3%). Of the participants 78% did not receive any education on IPV during undergraduate period and 84.2% during specialty training. The emergency medicine residents encountered significantly more IPV cases in their professional lives than the family medicine residents (9.81±27.82, 1.45±2.88 p=0.001), and knew the procedure for reporting IPV better than the family medicine residents (48.3%, 24.8% p=0.002). The percentage of the participants who declared that they have difficulty in the mental examination phase in IPV management procedures was 49.2%. The most common reason physicians were reluctant to report IPV was their lack of knowledge of legal processes (64.4%). The percentage of family medicine residents were higher than the emergency medicine residents on being reluctant to report IPV because of concern about the safety of themselves and the victim (53.0%, 20.0% p=0.001). There was no statistically significant difference between residents regarding knowledge (p=0.100). The mean attitude score of the emergency residents was significantly higher than the family physicians (2.81±0.42, 2.69±0.33 p=0.032). Conclusion: The knowledge and attitude scores of family medicine and emergency medicine residents in our region are not at the expected level, suggesting a need for theoretical and practical training programs and accessible resources on IPV both in undergraduate and specialty education. Keywords: Family physician, emergency medicine, residents, intimate partner violence, women, PREMIS, The Scale of Attitudes and Practices of Healthcare Workers on IPV.