Information attitudes and behaviors of primary healthcare workers on domestic violence against women

Violence against women is a major human rights violation and a pandemic-sized global public health problem. This research is a cross-sectional study conducted to determine the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of primary health care workers, who have an important role in recognizing and addressing violence against women, on domestic violence against women. The population of the research consisted of health professionals working actively in 18 family health centers in Yenişehir district. Out of 133 people in the population of the research, 121 people were reached. An introductory information form and the "Scale Form for Nurses and Midwives to Recognize the Symptoms of Violence Against Women" were used to collect data in the study. 62% of the health workers participating in the study were women and 38% were men; 46.3% are physicians and 54.7% are family health workers. The average age of the participants is 37.468.57. 71.1% of the participants think that their knowledge on domestic violence is sufficient. It was determined that 68.6% of the participants had never heard of CEDAW and 37.2% of them had never heard of the Law No. 6284 on the Protection of the Family. 77.7% of the participants did not receive training on domestic violence against women before graduation and 61.2% after graduation. It was observed that family health workers received more training than physicians before graduation (p<0.05). 61.2% of the participants stated that they made a notification when they encountered a case of violence against women. The total scale score average of recognizing the symptoms of violence against women of the health workers participating in the research is19.423.57, the mean physical subscale score is 8.231.70, and the emotional subscale mean score is 11.192.54. Physicians' total scale and emotional subscale averages were found to be higher than family health workers. Physicians recognize the symptoms of emotional violence better than family health workers. As a result, the level of knowledge of the health professionals working in the family health center participating in our study was found to be partially sufficient to recognize the symptoms of violence against women and their training on domestic violence against women was insufficient. It has been determined that the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, such as having children, occupational group and economic status, affect the averages of the 'Scale of Nurses and Midwives Recognizing the Symptoms of Violence Against Women'. the participants generally exhibited a positive attitude but passive behavior about the cases of violence against women. KEYWORDS: women, violence, family health center, health workers, primary care