Health Care's Response to Women Exposed to Partner Violence: Moving Beyond Universal Screening

Partner violence is a serious social and health care issue that results in short- and long-term physical and psychological harm for women, their children, and their families. Consequently, an issue with which the health sector has struggled since partner violence was identified as a major public health problem in 1992¹ is how to best identify and respond to abused women in primary health care settings. In this issue of JAMA, the study by Klevens and colleagues² provides important new evidence to inform recommendations for the clinical management of abused women. The results of this clinical trial should encourage shifting the focus away from universal screening (administering a standard set of questions to all patients) to case finding—identifying and providing appropriate clinical and social services to women who show signs and symptoms of abuse.