title: Intimate partner violence in Europe: design and methods of a multinational study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the design, methods, procedures and characteristics of the population involved in a study designed to compare Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in eight European countries.
  
  
  METHODS
  Women and men aged 18-65, living in Ghent-Belgium (n = 245), Stuttgart-Germany (n = 546), Athens-Greece (n = 548), Budapest-Hungary (n = 604), Porto-Portugal (n = 635), Granada-Spain (n = 138), Östersund-Sweden (n = 592), London-United Kingdom (n = 571), were sampled and administered a common questionnaire. Chi-square goodness of fit and five-age strata population fractions ratios for sex and education were computed to evaluate samples' representativeness.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Differences in the age distributions were found among women from Sweden and Portugal and among men from Belgium, Hungary, Portugal and Sweden. Over-recruitment of more educated respondents was noted in all sites.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The use of a common research protocol with the same structured questionnaire is likely to provide accurate estimates of the general population IPV frequency, despite limitations in probabilistic sampling and restrictions in methods of administration.
authors: Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Predictive Medicine and Public Health, University of Porto Medical School, Porto, Portugal; Institute of Public Health, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal. Electronic address: dmcosta@med.up.pt.
authors: Diogo
authors: D
authors: Costa
authors: Joaquim J F
authors: JJ
authors: Soares
authors: Jutta
authors: J
authors: Lindert
authors: Eleni
authors: E
authors: Hatzidimitriadou
authors: Andreas
authors: A
authors: Karlsso
authors: Örjan
authors: Ö
authors: Sundin
authors: Olga
authors: O
authors: Toth
authors: Ellisabeth
authors: E
authors: Ioannidi-Kapolou
authors: Olivier
authors: O
authors: Degomme
authors: Jorge
authors: J
authors: Cervilla
authors: Henrique
authors: H
authors: Barros
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards*; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Estudio multicéntrico; Europa; Europe; Hombres; Intimate partner violence; Men; Methods; Mujeres; Multi-centre study; Métodos; Violencia infligida por la pareja; Women