Knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and screening practices of domestic violence against women among emergency departments’ health care providers in Lebanon

Abstract

There is lack of data on the readiness of healthcare providers in the emergency departments in Lebanon to identify and properly treat women who suffer domestic violence. Although research studies have shown that domestic violence against women (DVAW) is associated with many adverse physical, psychological, and health outcomes, healthcare providers (HCPs) remain insensitive to the presenting symptoms of their patients, and often fail to manage incidents of DVAW. Many studies have been conducted to understand the reasons behind DVAW screening and management failures; however, there is lack of data from the Middle East exploring this phenomenon.The aim of this research study was to investigate the factors affecting screening and management practices of DVAW among emergency departments’ HCPs in Lebanon. Specifically, factors such as knowledge, attitudes and beliefs, as well as gender and parental education of HCPs were explored.This cross sectional, descriptive study was conducted on seventy-five HCPs in three major hospitals in Beirut, and showed that healthcare providers in Lebanese hospitals lack knowledge on DVAW, tend to have negative attitudes and beliefs toward this phenomenon, and rarely screen and manage suspected cases of DVAW. Gender and parental education did not have any effect on their attitudes towards DVAW.