The Role of Community Health Professionals in Addressing Intimate Partner Violence: A Scoping Review.
Avanti Adhia, Mary Wingert, Kelly Chadwick and 3 others
PMID 42548307WHAT IT FOUND
Community nurses and other health professionals commonly delivered intimate partner violence prevention and response through screening, referral, safety planning, education, and home visiting.
Most studies did not test whether IPV itself changed; some reported reductions, others did not.
Key findings
01The review included 45 articles; nurses were specified in 22 studies and home visitors in 21.
02Most studies measured implementation, engagement, knowledge, attitudes, safety behaviors, or qualitative reflections rather than IPV behavior.
03Among 16 studies that tested IPV behavior, 10 reported reductions; several randomized Nurse-Family Partnership trials had null findings.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The included studies were too heterogeneous for meta-analysis or firm conclusions about particular intervention types. Many studies measured implementation, engagement, knowledge, attitudes, safety behaviors, or qualitative reflections rather than intimate partner violence behavior. Positive intimate partner violence behavior findings may be affected by publication bias. The review was limited to U.S., English, peer-reviewed articles and did not search grey literature. Community health professional roles may not have been fully captured, and structural interventions were not comprehensively included.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that community health professional programs reliably reduce intimate partner violence. Most studies measured implementation, knowledge, attitudes, safety behaviors, or engagement, and several randomized Nurse-Family Partnership trials had null intimate partner violence outcomes.