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Biomedical subjects

Judith McFarlane

Publications and source records attributed to Judith McFarlane.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Testing therapeutic life review offered by home care workers to decrease depression among home-dwelling older women.

The purpose of the study was to test a psychosocial intervention, therapeutic life review, offered by home care workers to decrease depression among home-dwelling older women. A quasi-experimental, one-group time-series design measured the effect of a once-a-week, 40-minute therapeutic life review intervention, delivered for six weeks by home care workers, on the depression scores of women 65 years and older, compared to their scores during the ten weeks prior to the intervention. Over time, depression scores improved with a significant decrease in depression immediately following the six-week intervention. Based on these findings, we concluded that home care workers can deliver a community-based psychosocial intervention that decreases depression in their home-dwelling clients.

Aged↗
PubMed2006

Risk factors for femicide-suicide in abusive relationships: results from a multisite case control study.

The killing of women by men who then take their own lives (femicide-suicide) is the most common form of homicide-suicide. This study identified femicide-suicide risk factors in an 11-city case-control study of femicide in the United States. Perpetrator, victim, relationship, and incident characteristics were analyzed for femicide-suicide cases (n = 67) and controls (n = 356, women living in the community with nonfatal physical abuse) using logistic regression modeling. Two risk factors emerged that were unique to femicide-suicides cases compared to overall femicide risk analyses: prior perpetrator suicide threats and victims having ever been married to the perpetrator.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Intimate partner sexual assault against women and associated victim substance use, suicidality, and risk factors for femicide.

In order to establish the frequency of substance use, following and attributed to sexual assault, and describe the danger for femicide and suicidality for women physically and sexually abused compared to physically-abused only women, a personal interview of 148 African-American, Hispanic, and white English and Spanish-speaking abused women was completed. Women who reported more than one sexual assault were 3.5 (95% CI, 0.9, 13.4) times more likely to report beginning or increasing substance use compared to women who reported only one sexual assault. Sexually assaulted women reported significantly (p=.002) more risk factors for femicide compared to physically- abused only women. Specific to suicide, women reporting sexual assault were 5.3 (95% CI, 1.3, 21.5) times more likely to report threatening or attempted suicide within a 90-day period compared to physically-abused only women. The health assessment and intervention of intimate partner violence must extend beyond injury to include behavior risk sequelae of substance abuse and suicidality.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Intimate partner sexual assault against women: frequency, health consequences, and treatment outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the characteristics and consequences of sexual assault within intimate relationships specific to racial or ethnic group, compare the findings to a similar group of physically assaulted-only women, and measure the risk of reassault after victim contact with justice and health services. METHODS: A personal interview survey of 148 African-American, Hispanic, and white English- and Spanish-speaking abused women seeking a protection order. Extent of sexual assault, prevalence of rape-related sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy, symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, and risk of reassault after treatment were measured. RESULTS: Sixty-eight percent of the physically abused women reported sexual assault. Fifteen percent of the women attributed 1 or more sexually-transmitted diseases to sexual assault, and 20% of the women experienced a rape-related pregnancy. Sexually assaulted women reported significantly (P = .02) more PTSD symptoms compared with nonsexually assaulted women. One significant (P = .003) difference occurred between ethnic groups and PTSD scores. Regardless of sexual assault or no assault, Hispanic women reported significantly higher mean PTSD scores compared with African-American women (P = .005) and White women (P = .012). The risk of sexual reassault was decreased by 59% and 70% for women who contacted the police, or applied for a protection order, after the first sexual assault. Receiving medical care decreased the woman's risk of further sexual assault by 32%. CONCLUSION: Sexual assault is experienced by most physically abused women and associated with significantly higher levels of PTSD compared with women physically abused only. The risk of reassault is decreased if contact is made with health or justice agencies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Increasing the safety-promoting behaviors of abused women.

OVERVIEW: Despite an epidemic of intimate-partner violence against women, and general agreement that women should be screened for it, few assessment and intervention protocols have been evaluated in controlled studies. To test a telephone intervention intended to increase the "safety-promoting behavior" of abused women, 75 women received six telephone calls over a period of eight weeks in which safety-promoting behaviors were discussed. A control group of 75 women received usual care. Women in both groups received follow-up calls to assess safety-promoting behaviors at three, six, 12, and 18 months after intake. Analysis showed that the women in the intervention group practiced significantly (P < 0.01) more safety-promoting behaviors than women in the control group at each assessment. On average, women in the intervention group practiced almost two more safety-promoting behaviors than they had at time of intake and nearly two more than women in the control group; the additional behaviors were practiced for 18 months. This nursing intervention requires only 54 minutes to complete (six nine-minute telephone calls) and can be integrated into any health care setting. Because less than one hour of professional nursing time is involved, the cost of the intervention is minimal. Future research should determine whether the adoption of safety-promoting behaviors by abused women averts trauma and its subsequent health care costs.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Protection orders and intimate partner violence: an 18-month study of 150 black, Hispanic, and white women.

OBJECTIVES: We compared types and frequencies of intimate partner violence experienced by women before and after receipt of a 2-year protection order. METHODS: Participants were 150 urban English- and Spanish-speaking Black, Hispanic, and White women who qualified for a 2-year protection order against an intimate partner. RESULTS: One woman committed suicide 6 weeks into the study. The remaining 149 women completed all interviews. Results showed significant reductions in threats of assault, physical assault, stalking, and worksite harassment over time among all women, regardless of receipt or nonreceipt of a protection order. CONCLUSIONS: Abused women who apply and qualify for a 2-year protection order, irrespective of whether or not they are granted the order, report significantly lower levels of violence during the subsequent 18 months.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Could we have known? A qualitative analysis of data from women who survived an attempted homicide by an intimate partner.

OBJECTIVE: To examine in-depth the lives of women whose partners attempted to kill them, and to identify patterns that may aid in the clinician's ability to predict, prevent, or counsel about femicide or attempted femicide. DESIGN: Qualitative analysis of 30 in-depth interviews. SETTING: Six U.S. cities. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty women, aged 17-54 years, who survived an attempted homicide by an intimate partner. RESULTS: All but 2 of the participants had previously experienced physical violence, controlling behavior, or both from the partner who attempted to kill them. The intensity of the violence, control, and threats varied greatly, as did the number of risk factors measured by the Danger Assessment, defining a wide spectrum of prior abuse. Approximately half (14/30) of the participants did not recognize that their lives were in danger. Women often focused more on relationship problems involving money, alcohol, drugs, possessiveness, or infidelity, than on the risk to themselves from the violence. The majority of the attempts (22/30) happened around the time of a relationship change, but the relationship was often ending because of problems other than violence. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians should not be falsely reassured by a woman's sense of safety, by the lack of a history of severe violence, or by the presence of few classic risk factors for homicide. Efforts to reduce femicide risk that are targeted only at those women seeking help for violence-related problems may miss potential victims.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Risk factors for femicide in abusive relationships: results from a multisite case control study.

OBJECTIVES: This 11-city study sought to identify risk factors for femicide in abusive relationships. METHODS: Proxies of 220 intimate partner femicide victims identified from police or medical examiner records were interviewed, along with 343 abused control women. RESULTS: Preincident risk factors associated in multivariate analyses with increased risk of intimate partner femicide included perpetrator's access to a gun and previous threat with a weapon, perpetrator's stepchild in the home, and estrangement, especially from a controlling partner. Never living together and prior domestic violence arrest were associated with lowered risks. Significant incident factors included the victim having left for another partner and the perpetrator's use of a gun. Other significant bivariate-level risks included stalking, forced sex, and abuse during pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: There are identifiable risk factors for intimate partner femicides.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Intimate partner stalking and femicide: urgent implications for women's safety.

This study describes the type and extent of intimate partner stalking and threatening behaviors that occurred within 12 months prior to a major assault or attempted or actual partner femicide and specifies which behaviors were associated with an increased risk of potential or actual lethality. The design was a ten-city case-control study of 821 women: 384 abuse victims and 437 attempted or actual femicide informants. Data were derived using a 16-item inventory. Logistic regressions, with adjustments for demographic variables, were used to identify the significant perpetrator behaviors associated with attempted/actual femicide. Women who reported the perpetrator followed or spied on them were more than twice as likely t o become attempted/actual femicide victims. Threats by the perpetrator to harm the children if the woman left or did not return to the relationship place the woman at a ninefold increase in the risk of attempted/actual femicide. Conclusions are that certain stalking and threatening behaviors are strong risk factors for lethality, and women must be so advised.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Abuse during pregnancy and femicide: urgent implications for women's health.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the odds of femicide (homicide of females) for women abused during pregnancy. METHODS: A ten-city case-control design was used with attempted and completed femicides as cases (n = 437) and randomly identified abused women living in the same metropolitan area as controls (n = 384). The attempted and completed femicide cases were identified from police and medical examiner records. Interviews of attempted femicide victims and a proxy for the femicide victim were compared with data from abused controls, identified via random digit dialing in the same ten cities. RESULTS: Abuse during pregnancy was reported by 7.8% of the abused controls, 25.8% of the attempted femicides, and 22.7% of the completed femicides. Five percent of the femicide victims were murdered while pregnant. After adjusting for significant demographic factors, such as age, ethnicity, education, and relationship status, the risk of becoming an attempted/completed femicide victim was three-fold higher (adjusted odds ratio 3.08, 95% adjusted confidence interval 1.86, 5.10) for women abused during pregnancy. Black women had more than a three-fold increase in risk (adjusted odds ratio 3.6, 95% adjusted confidence interval 2.4, 5.5) as compared with white women. Compared with women not abused during pregnancy, controls and attempted/completed femicide victims abused during pregnancy reported significantly higher levels of violence. CONCLUSION: Femicide is an important, but often unreported, cause of maternal mortality. This is the first report of a definite link between abuse during pregnancy and attempted/completed femicide. This research documents the immediate need for universal abuse assessment of all pregnant women.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

An intervention to increase safety behaviors of abused women: results of a randomized clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: Although intimate partner violence is recognized as a major threat to women's health, few interventions have been developed or tested. OBJECTIVE: To test an intervention administered to abused women in order to increase safety-seeking behaviors. METHOD: A two-group clinical trial randomized 75 abused women to receive six telephone intervention sessions on safety behaviors. A control group of 75 women received standard care. Women in both groups were re-interviewed at 3 months and 6 months post-initial measurement. RESULTS: Using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), we found significantly [F (2,146) 5.11, =.007] more adopted safety behaviors reported by women in the intervention group than by women in the control group at both the 3-month [F (91,74) = 19.70, <.001] and 6-month [F (1,74) = 15.90, <.001] interviews. The effect size (ES) of the intervention was large at 3 months (ES = 1.5) and remained substantial at 6 months (ES = 0.56). DISCUSSION: These findings demonstrate that an intervention to increase safety behaviors of abused women is highly effective when offered following an abusive incident and remains effective for 6 months.

Adult↗