The quality of evidence on the effectiveness of family focussed domestic abuse interventions is undermined by heterogeneity in outcome measurement. This makes it difficult for decision makers to use evidence to inform practice and commissioning decisions. To address this, we developed a core outcome set for family focused domestic abuse interventions, reaching agreement between survivors, practitioners and researchers about the most important outcomes to be measured. For the core outcome set to be used, there needs to be agreement on how these outcomes are measured as well as the validity of the tools selected.
This study has two work packages: 1) to identify outcomes measures for 3 of the 5 outcome domains (safety, family relationships, freedom to go about everyday life; and 2) validate the (short) Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale, previously identified for the remaining 2 outcomes (child/young person and parent wellbeing).
For work package 1 we will use consensus-based methods, including literature reviews and workshops, to reach consensus between stakeholders on measurement instruments to assess core outcomes.
For work package 2 we will conduct secondary data analysis on a cohort study, OxWell Student Survey, which collected data from over 30,000 children, aged 11-18. The survey included both the SWEMWBS and a question pertaining to exposure to physical domestic abuse. We will examine the psychometric properties of the SWEMWBS, including content validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity, internal consistency, and measurement invariance across children exposed to DVA versus those reporting no exposure.
COMET DATABASE SEARCH: Core Outcome Set Studies
Relevant studies found include previous iterations of this work by authors of this protocol, to identify the priority outcomes which comprise the DVA-COS, as well as initial searching for appropriate OMIs. Another ongoing study by Pathak et al, does not focus on child outcomes and therefore this COS is necessary.
University of Sussex: Emma Howarth (PI), Elizabeth Dunk, Shivi Bains, Jenna Harewell, Lazaros Gonidis
University College London: Claire Powell
Disease Category: Public health
Disease Name: Domestic violence and abuse
Age Range: 0 - 120
Sex: Either
Nature of Intervention: Other, Psychological & behavioural
- Charities
- Consumers (caregivers)
- Consumers (patients)
- Families
- Patient/ support group representatives
- Policy makers
- Researchers
- Service commissioners
- Service providers
- Service users
- Recommendations for outcome measures (measurement/how)
- Consensus meeting
- Focus group(s)
- Nominal group technique (NGT)
- Semi structured discussion
- Survey
- Systematic review
A four-stage process; 1) systematic review for outcome measure instruments (OMIs) of the domestic violence and abuse (DVA) literature (academic and grey) and through targeted searches of the non-DVA literature; 2) concept workshops with 15 key stakeholders to refine definitions of the COS outcomes; 3) candidate OMIs and their associated studies were quality appraised, using the COSMIN protocol, and the highest scoring tools were shortlisted for assessment of their acceptability and feasibility. Feedback workshops and stakeholder votes determined which tools should proceed to the consensus workshop; 4) a consensus workshop was held with 29 DVA practitioners, commissioners, researchers and survivors to allow stakeholders to discuss and reach agreement recommending OMIs for the outcomes.?