Training Sri Lankan public health midwives on intimate partner violence: a pre- and post-intervention study

BMC Public Health

Masamine Jimba⁴  Achala Upendra Jayatilleke³  Nilani Fernando¹  Krishna C Poudel²  Junko Yasuoka⁴  Kayoko Yoshikawa⁴  Achini Chinthika Jayatilleke⁴ 

[1] Regional Director of Health Services Office, Ministry of Health, Kandy, Sri Lanka;Department of Health Promotion and Policy, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA;Postgraduate Institute of Medicine, University of Colombo, Colombo, Sri Lanka;Department of Community and Global Health, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

关键词: Training;    Public health midwives;    Sri Lanka;    Intimate partner violence;   

Others  :  1170945
DOI  :  10.1186/s12889-015-1674-9

 received in 2014-10-22, accepted in 2015-03-23,  发布年份 2015

【 摘 要 】

Background

In many developing countries, intimate partner violence (IPV) training is not available for health providers. As a pioneer among developing countries, in 2009, the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health trained a group of community health providers known as public health midwives (PHMs) on IPV. We evaluated that training program’s efficacy in improving PHMs’ identification and management of IPV sufferers in Kandy, Sri Lanka.

Methods

We conducted this study from August 2009 to September 2010. We used a self-administered structured questionnaire to examine the following variables among 408 PHMs: self-reported IPV practices, IPV knowledge, perceived barriers, perceived responsibility, and self-confidence in identifying and assisting IPV sufferers. We used McNemar’s test to compare PHMs’ pre- and post-intervention IPV practices. Using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, we compared PHMs’ pre-and post-intervention IPV knowledge, as well as their perceived barriers, responsibility, and self-confidence scores.

Results

The IPV training program improved PHMs’ IPV practices significantly. Six months after the intervention, 98.5% (n = 402) of the 408 PHMs identified at least one IPV sufferer in the previous three months, compared to 73.3% (n = 299) in the pre-intervention (p < 0.001). At post-intervention, 96.5% (n = 387) of the PHMs discussed IPV with identified sufferers and suggested solutions; only 67.3% (n = 201) did so at the pre-intervention (p < 0.001). In addition, after the intervention, there were significant increases (p < 0.001) in the median total scores of PHMs’ IPV knowledge (0.62 vs. 0.88), perceived responsibility (3.20 vs. 4.60), and self-confidence (1.81 vs. 2.75). PHMs’ perceived barriers decreased from 2.43 to 1.14 (p < 0.001).

Conclusions

An IPV training program for PHMs improved identification and assistance of IPV sufferers in Kandy, Sri Lanka. This training program has the potential to improve PHMs’ skills in preventing IPV and supporting sufferers in other regions of Sri Lanka. Other developing countries might learn lessons from Sri Lanka’s IPV training.

【 授权许可】

   
2015 Jayatilleke et al.; licensee BioMed Central.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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