Increasing Discussions of Intimate Partner Violence in Prenatal Care Using Video Doctor Plus Provider Cueing: A Randomized, Controlled Trial

Purpose: To report the effectiveness of a prenatal intervention and to provide evidence that prenatal visits provide an opportune time for health assessment and counseling with abused women. Methods: Fifty ethnically diverse pregnant women who presented for routine prenatal care and who also reported being at risk for intimate partner violence (IPV) were recruited to the study. Participants were assigned to either usual care or the Video Doctor plus Provider Cueing intervention. At baseline and 1 month later at another routine prenatal visit, intervention group participants received a 15-minute Video Doctor assessment and interactive tailored counseling. Their providers received a printed Cue Sheet alert and suggested counseling statements. Main Findings: Participants in the intervention group were significantly more likely to report provider-patient discussions of IPV compared with participants receiving usual care at baseline (81.8% vs. 16.7%; p < .001) and at the 1-month follow-up (70.0% vs. 23.5%; p = .005). Summing the number of patient-provider discussions across the two visits at baseline and 1 month later, intervention participants were significantly more likely to have IPV risk discussion with their providers at one or both visits (90.0% vs. 23.6%; p < .001) compared with the participants who received usual care. When specifically asked about the helpfulness of these IPV-related discussions, 20 out of 22 (90.9%) participants rated the discussion as helpful or very helpful at baseline and all 18 (100%) participants rated the discussion as helpful or very helpful at the 1-month follow-up. Conclusion: Video Doctor plus Provider Cueing intervention significantly increases the likelihood of provider-patient IPV discussion with pregnant women with a history of abuse.