WAST Screen for Intimate Partner Violence

1. See Also
   1. Intimate Partner Violence
2. Indications
   1. Intimate Partner Violence Screening
3. Background
   1. Developed and validated for use in family medicine clinics
4. Criteria: Part 1 (WAST-SF - questions 1-2)
   1. Questions (represents the complete WAST-SF as well as the first 2 of 8 questions of the WAST)
      1. In general, how would you describe your relationship?
         1. No tension
         2. Some tension
         3. A lot of tension
      2. Do you and your partner work out arguments with...
         1. No difficulty
         2. Some difficulty
         3. Great difficulty?
   2. Interpretation
      1. Positive WAST-SF (short form) screen if answers "a lot of tension" and "great difficulty"
      2. Positive WAST-SF should be followed by completion of part 2 below for the entire WAST
5. Criteria: Part 2 (WAST - questions 3-8)
   1. Scoring: Assign one of the following to each question (Likert Scale)
      1. Never
      2. Sometimes
      3. Often
   2. Questions
      1. Do arguments ever result in you feeling down or bad about yourself?
      2. Do arguments ever result in hitting, kicking or pushing?
      3. Do you ever feel frightened about what your partner says or does?
      4. Does your partner ever abuse you physically?
      5. Does your partner ever abuse you emotionally?
      6. Does your partner ever abuse you sexually?
   3. Interpretation
      1. Interpretation is based on clinical judgement (no fixed positive scoring is assigned)
6. Efficacy
   1. WAST-SF Tool
      1. Test Sensitivity: 92%
      2. Test Specificity: 56-68%
   2. WAST Tool
      1. Test Sensitivity: 47%
      2. Test Specificity: 96%
7. References
   1. Brown (1996) Fam Med 28(6):422-8 [PubMed]