TY - JOUR T1 - Screening for abuse in Spanish-speaking women. JF - The Journal of the American Board of Family Practice JO - J Am Board Fam Med SP - 101 LP - 111 VL - 15 IS - 2 AU - Colleen T Fogarty AU - Judith Belle Brown Y1 - 2002/03/01 UR - http://www.jabfm.org/content/15/2/101.abstract N2 - 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. ER -