Mandatory reporting laws do not deter patients from seeking medical care.
OBJECTIVE
As of March 1994, 45 states had laws that, to varying extents, required health practitioners to report cases of domestic violence (DV). Colorado passed a mandatory DV reporting law in 1995. Laws that mandate police involvement in cases of DV injuries have been criticized because of concerns that these laws deter victims from seeking medical care. We hypothesized that these laws would deter DV victims from seeking medical care.


METHODS
A questionnaire was administered in 3 stages: stage 1, convenience time blocks at 2 emergency departments and a primary care clinic; stage 2, prospective randomized blocks at an inner-city ED; and stage 3, a targeted population of women at risk for DV. All English-speaking, noncritical adult patients who presented during the time blocks were eligible to participate.


RESULTS
Five hundred seventy-seven patients participated; 55% of the patients were aware of the mandatory DV reporting law. Twenty-seven percent of the patients would be more likely to seek medical care because of this law. Only 12% of patients stated that they would be less likely to seek medical care for a DV-related injury because of this law (15% of men and 9% of women; P =.001). There was no difference between ED patients and targeted female patients at risk for DV in seeking medical care ( P =.833).


CONCLUSIONS
Only rarely did mandatory reporting laws appear to adversely affect a patient's decisions to seek medical care in this study. The benefits of mandatory reporting must be measured to assure that they justify deterrence to a small minority of patients.
Houry
D
D
Emergency Medicine Residency Program, Department of Emergency Medicine, Denver Health Medical Center, CO 80202-4507, USA. Dhoury@aol.com
Feldhaus
K
K
Thorson
A C
AC
Abbott
J
J
D000328:Adult; D003120:Colorado / Q000453:epidemiology; D017579:Domestic Violence / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019221:Mandatory Reporting; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015995:Prevalence; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires