Background: The use of electronic media is widespread among young people and is a potential tool for the perpetration of intimate-partner violence (IPV) towards women. The aim of this study is to validate two questions focused on harassment and control by electronic tools (HCE-2) as a screening tool for the detection of IPV in young women.
Methods: The data source was the third Community of Madrid IPV survey in 2014. The screening tool consisted of two questions with five possible answers prepared by a group of experts. As the gold standard we used the definition of intimate partner violence based on a 26- question survey. The validity indices (with 95% confidence intervals) were compared between two age groups: 18-24 and 25-29 years.
Results: Six hundred ninty-four women were sampled. The response rate was 68.7%, and 477 surveys were analyzed. The prevalence of IPV was 10.7% (95% CI: 8.2-13.8). HCE-2 was positive in 5.9% (95% CI: 4.1-8.4). The overall efficiency of the test was 93.5% (95% CI: 91.1-96.7), sensitivity 47.1% (95% CI: 33.7-60.8), specificity 99.1% (95% CI: 97.5-99.6), and positive predictive value 85.7% (95% CI: 67.1-94.6). The best validity indices of the questionnaire were observed in women aged 18 to 24 years: overall efficiency of the test 95.1% (95% CI: 92.6-97.7), sensitivity 62.5% (95% CI: 44.5-77.6), specificity 99.6% (95% CI: 97.0-99.9), and positive predictive value 95.2% (95% CI: 71.7-99.4).
Conclusions: The existing need to improve the detection of IPV in young women and the good validity indices observed here justify the recommendation of the HCE-2 questionnaire as a screening tool in young women.
Keywords: Cyber-dating abuse; Gender-based violence; Health surveys; Intimate-partner violence; Mass screening; Validation study; Young adult.
© 2021. The Author(s).