Hawai'i journal of medicine & public health : a journal of Asia Pacific Medicine & Public Health
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Hawaii J Med Public Health · May 2014
Disparities in intimate partner violence prenatal counseling: setting a baseline for the implementation of the Guidelines for Women's Preventive Services.
Prenatal health care counseling is associated with positive health outcomes for mothers and infants. Moreover, pregnant women are considered a vulnerable population at risk of being victims of intimate partner violence. Pregnancy provides a unique opportunity to identify and refer women experiencing intimate partner violence to community resources; however, in prior research, most women reported that their prenatal care providers did not talk to them about intimate partner violence. ⋯ Overall, 47.7% of mothers were counseled on intimate partner violence. Compared to Whites, Native Hawaiians, Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans were significantly less likely to report receiving prenatal health care counseling in intimate partner violence, but the opposite association was observed for Samoans. Intimate partner violence continues to be a significant problem for women, thus, this study's findings may be used as important baseline data to measure the progress made given the implementation of the new Guidelines for Women's Preventive Services in intimate partner violence screening and counseling.