Screening tools and programmes for intimate partner violence in antenatal and postpartum healthcare across Europe: a scoping review with quality assessment

Description

Anne Katrine Normann and colleagues published a 2026 scoping review of screening for intimate partner violence during pregnancy and after birth across Europe. Violence in this window harms mother and child, yet practice varies and the scale is likely undercounted. Following recognised scoping methods, the team searched seven databases for screening tools used in European antenatal and postpartum care, judged study quality, and asked representatives of forty-six countries about their programmes.

Twenty-four studies were included, with quality ranging widely, and thirteen tools were identified, most often the Abuse Assessment Screen and the Woman Abuse Screening Tool. No tool covered stalking or digital abuse. Replies came from twenty-two countries: seventeen had screening programmes, five had none, and most programmes recommended asking everyone rather than only those judged at risk. Practice remains far from uniform, the authors say.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/PMC13543388