PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Fogarty, Colleen T
AU  - Brown, Judith Belle
TI  - Screening for abuse in Spanish-speaking women.
DP  - 2002 Mar 01
TA  - The Journal of the American Board of Family Practice
PG  - 101--111
VI  - 15
IP  - 2
4099  - http://www.jabfm.org/content/15/2/101.short
4100  - http://www.jabfm.org/content/15/2/101.full
SO  - J Am Board Fam Med2002 Mar 01; 15
AB  - BACKGROUND Domestic violence is a major personal and public health concern affecting women of all walks of life. Physicians have reported the need for screening instruments to help recognize abuse; several have been validated in English. No screening tools thus far have been validated in other languages.METHODS We translated a previously validated tool, the Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST), into Spanish. To assess for validity, we compared responses of Spanish-speaking abused and nonabused respondents drawn from a community health center and a battered women's shelter. There were 27 women in the abused group and 34 women in the nonabused comparison group.RESULTS The scale was found to be reliable with a Cronbach alpha of 0.91. The mean WAST Spanish scores were significantly different between the two groups, indicating this tool would be a valid screening instrument. A short form using the two most reliable questions was developed as a more rapid screening tool for office use, achieving a specificity of 94% and a sensitivity of 89%.CONCLUSIONS The Spanish version of the WAST successfully discriminated between Spanish-speaking nonabused and abused women. The short form might help physicians reliably screen for abuse in Spanish-speaking women.