Table 3.

 Characteristics of attitude studies

Author(s)	Country	Setting	Inclusion criteria	Question on attitude to screening	Age range of sample	Ethnicity of sample	Socioeconomic status of sample
Asking women
Friedman et al (1992)12	USA	Primary care divisions of one private and one public hospital	All female and male primary care patients aged ⩾18 with ability to understand English	Attitude to physicians screening for DV, where perpetrator is member of household or immediate family or any relative	52% aged ⩽50	55% white, 30% African-American, 6% hispanic, 4% Caribbean, 5% other	52% >high school education
Caralis and Musialowski (1997)13	USA	Primary care (ambulatory clinics)	All female patients who came daily during designated 4 hour time blocks	Attitude to doctors routinely screening for DV in their practices, where perpetrator is partner or relative	34-66	26% black, 16% hispanic, 58% non-hispanic or white	33% <$10 000 pa, 9% >$25 000 pa; 40% employed, 30% retired, 8% homemaker; 41% high school graduate, 19% college or beyond
Gielen et al (2000)14	USA	Primary care (HMO provider)	Female patients aged 21-55 at time of recruitment, enrolled with HMO from 1995 through 1997, who had completed an initial telephone screening interview to ascertain DV status	Policy preferences for routine screening for partner abuse, including attitude to doctors and nurses asking all women at all visits about physical and sexual abuse	55% aged ⩽40	41% white (abused); 55% white (non-abused)	34% graduates (abused), 54% graduates (non-abused); 40% income ⩾$50 000 pa (abused), 57% income ⩾$50 000 pa (non-abused)
McNutt et al (1999)15	USA	Family practice and domestic violence programmes	Female English speaking patients aged 18-44 having an obstetrics and gynaecology, general physical or other extended examination	Attitude to doctors screening all women for DV, where perpetrator is partner	From age range 18-24 to 35-44	47% white, 41% African-American, 12% other	Not stated
			Non-residential women attending support groups or an individual appointment at four DV programmes, or women residents of shelter attending group meetings		From age range 18-24 to ⩾45	54% white, 21% African-American, 25% other
Asking health professionals
Friedman et al (1992)12	USA	Primary care divisions of one private and one public hospital	Primary care attending physicians	Attitude to physicians screening for DV at annual examination, where perpetrator is member of household or immediate family or any relative	Not stated	Not stated	Not stated
Ellis (1999)16	USA	Emergency department	Registered nurses in a level 1 trauma centre	Attitude to nurses screening all women for current and past DV, where perpetrator is partner	24-59	Not stated	All educated to at least diploma level

DV=domestic violence; HMO=health maintenance organisation.