Questionnaire to Study Impacts in the Health of the Woman in the Climateric's Phase, Victim of Domestic and/or Sexual Violence

Objectives - To construct and validate a questionnaire evaluating violence suffered by women during any phase of their lives and health repercussions during climactery.

Method: A controlled study with the application of a questionnaire at the Outpatient Clinics for Endocrine Gynecology and Climactery of the University Hospital (Hospital das Clínicas) of the Medicine College of the University of São Paulo (FMUSP), Brazil, performed during 2009 for 124 women aged between 40 and 65 years, who were victims of domestic and/or sexual violence, distributed in three groups regarding the phase in which their experience with violence occurred: 1. Violence exclusively during childhood/adolescence; 2. During adulthood; 3. Throughout all phases. The instrument encompasses 13 key questions and 21 sub items evaluating: 1. Place of residence and who the woman lives with; 2. Start, frequency and type of violence; 3. Search for health assistance and report of the violence; 4. Violence and number of affections; 5. Violence and Menopausal Kupermann Index (IMK).

Results: The instrument presented Cronbach Alpha=0.82, reliability among examiners (+0,80), and good possibility to be reproduced. Average age of the women was 55,8 years (±6,6), menopause at -45,4 years in average, in the control Group (GC) it was 48,1 years; first sexual intercourse 19,5 years (GC = 21,0); menarche 13,1 years, and average BMI (Body Mass Index) 28,5 (±2,8), similar to the GC, but frequent violence during adulthood showed a BMI of 30,0 (±2,8). Women who were submitted to violence exclusively: during childhood 14,5%; adolescence 1,6%; adulthood 41,9%, during all phases of their lives 42,0%. Women subjected to violence during childhood/adolescence (58,1%) presented an average of 5,1 affections; during adulthood, 4,6 and 4,4 for both phases. Sexual violence (43,5%) and other types of violence both present average affections (4,60) but represent a significative impairment of sexual life. There were significative associations between suffering any type of violence during all phases of their lives, sexual violence during any phase of their lives and a serious IMK. Among those women, 80,6% did not search health services due to the violence suffered.

Conclusion: The questionnaire presents good internal consistency and a validated construction, can be easily reproduced and is indicated to evaluate the consequences of domestic and/or sexual violence on women´s health during climactery.