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Katarina Swahnberg

Publications and source records attributed to Katarina Swahnberg.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Female patients report on health care staff's disobedience of ethical principles.

BACKGROUND: Earlier studies have shown a high prevalence of abuse in health care (AHC). We hypothesized that patients might easily feel abused when staff do not follow prevailing ethical principles. Therefore we developed the Violations of Ethical Principles Questionnaire (ViolEP), with 30 examples of situations in health care where four ethical principles are disobeyed (autonomy, nonmaleficence, justice, and integrity). Respondents reported whether or not they had ever experienced each of the situations, and whether or not they had perceived that event as a violation. RESEARCH QUESTIONS: 1. What proportion of female patients have ever experienced staff disobeying ethical principles in health care? 2. To what extent are such events perceived as violations? and 3. How well do perceived violations of ethical principles correspond to experiences of AHC? METHOD: Our sample was 661 consecutive female patients at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Linköping, Sweden. They completed ViolEP and NorVold Abuse Questionnaire (NorAQ) at home and returned them by post. RESULTS: 20/661 (64%) women answered the ViolEP and 426/661 (64%) returned the NorAQ. The majority (73%) (306/420) had experienced staff disobeying ethical principles. More than every second woman had perceived those events as violations (68%) (209/306). The prevalence of AHC was 23%. ViolEP had good sensitivity but low specificity when we used AHC according to NorAQ as the "gold standard". CONCLUSION: The majority of the patients had experienced health care staff disobeying prevailing ethical principles. These events were not always perceived as violations. The reason for this discrepancy needs to be explored.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Are sociodemographic and regional and sample factors associated with prevalence of abuse?

BACKGROUND: The aims of the present study were: 1) to estimate the prevalence of emotional, physical and sexual abuse and abuse in the health care system, and 2) to study the associations between prevalence of abuse and sociodemographic and sample variables. METHODS: This cross-sectional study used a validated postal questionnaire in four Swedish samples; patients at three gynecologic clinics with different character and in different regions (n = 2439) and women in one randomized population sample (n = 1168). RESULTS: Any lifetime emotional abuse was reported by 16.8-21.4% of the women; physical abuse by 32.1-37.5%; sexual abuse by 15.9-17.0%; and abuse in the health care system by 14.0-19.7%. For 7-8% abuse had included life threats and 9-20% of all women in the study currently suffered from their experiences of abuse. Most women had not disclosed their background of abuse to the gynecologist. There were differences in sociodemographic variables between the four samples. Generally, in the multivariate analyses we found associations between prevalence of abuse and age, educational level, civil status and occupation, but no consistent association between prevalence of abuse and sample variables. CONCLUSION: Lifetime prevalence rates of the four kinds of abuse were high in all samples as measured by the NorVold Abuse Questionnaire (NorAQ), and 1/10-1/5 women in the study suffered currently from abusive experiences. In multivariate analyses prevalence of abuse was consistently associated with sociodemographic but not to sample variables.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

A history of sexual abuse and health: a Nordic multicentre study.

OBJECTIVES: To determine if a history of sexual abuse is associated with objective and subjective indicators of health and if certain abusive incidents had a stronger impact on health than others. DESIGN: A cross-sectional, multicentre study. SETTING: Five gynaecological departments in the five Nordic countries. SAMPLE: Three thousand five hundred and thirty-nine gynaecology patients. METHODS: The NorVold Abuse Questionnaire (NorAQ) on abuse history and current health was mailed to all patients who consented to participate. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Reason for index visit at the gynaeocological clinic as well as several questions on health were recorded. General health status was measured as self-estimated health, psychosomatic symptoms (headache, abdominal pain, muscle, weakness, dizziness), number of health care visits and number of periods on sick leave. RESULT: A history of sexual abuse was reported by 20.7% of respondents. A history of sexual abuse was significantly associated with chronic pelvic pain as reason for index visit (P < 0.01), laparoscopic surgery (P < 0.01), psychosomatic symptoms (P < 0.01), self-estimated poor health (P < 0.01), many health care visits (P < 0.01) and high incidence of sick leave (P < 0.01). Several subgroups within the group of sexually abused women were more likely to report poor health: women abused as both children and adults, women who experienced additional emotional and/or physical abuse and women abused by a person they knew. CONCLUSION: Sexual abuse has a profound impact on women's health. Taking a history of sexual abuse seems particularly warranted when the patient presents with chronic pelvic pain or symptoms of a vague and diffuse nature.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Women's perceived experiences of abuse in the health care system: their relationship to childhood abuse.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine whether there was an association between any lifetime experiences of emotional, physical and/or sexual abuse and perceived abuse in the health care system. Furthermore, we wanted to ascertain if adult victims of perceived abuse in the health care system reported exposure to childhood emotional, physical and/or sexual abuse more often than non-victims did. DESIGN: A cross sectional questionnaire study. The first hypothesis was tested in the total sample, and the second hypothesis in a case-control analysis. The cases were those women who reported perceived experiences of abuse in the health care system as adults. Exposure was defined as experience of emotional, physical and/or sexual abuse in childhood. SETTINGS: Three Swedish gynaecological clinics. SAMPLE: A total of 2439 gynaecology patients (response rate 81%). METHODS: Postal questionnaire. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Associations between experiences of emotional, physical and/or sexual abuse, and perceived abuse in the health care system; all operationalised in The NorVold Abuse Questionnaire (NorAQ). RESULTS: A general association was found between lifetime experiences of emotional, physical and/or sexual abuse and perceived abuse in the health care system. Adult victims of abuse in the health care system reported experiences of emotional, physical and/or sexual abuse in childhood more often than non-victims did. These findings also held after adjustment for age and educational level. CONCLUSIONS: We found associations between experiences of any lifetime abuse and perceived abuse in the health care system. Adult victimisation in the health care system was associated with childhood exposure to emotional, physical and/or sexual abuse. These associations call for attention and need to be further investigated.

Adolescent↗