Measuring the readiness to screen and manage intimate partner violence: Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric evaluation of the PREMIS tool for perinatal care providers

INTRODUCTION: Pregnancy and perinatal periods are significant risk factors of intimate partner violence (IPV), a major public health problem that could begin or intensify during these periods. Perinatal care providers have a major role in the identification and the management of IPV. This study aimed to cross-culturally adapt into French the Physician Readiness to Manage Intimate Partner Violence Survey (PREMIS) tool, a reliable instrument to assess the knowledge, attitudes and preparedness to address IPV, and to evaluate its psychometric properties. METHODS: The PREMIS was cross-culturally adapted by conducting forward and backward translations, following international guidelines. An online cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the psychometric properties of the PREMIS-French in perinatal care providers: data completeness, factor analysis, score distribution, floor and ceiling effects, internal consistency, item-total correlations, inter-subscale correlations and test-retest reliability. RESULTS: The PREMIS was successfully translated and cross-culturally adapted to the context of metropolitan France. The results obtained from 360 perinatal care providers showed good acceptability. Exploratory factor analysis of the “Opinions” items resulted in a six-factor solution with six of the eight subscales of the original structure identified. Good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha ranging from 0.54 to 0.97) and good test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficients ranging from 0.46 to 0.92) for the “Background” and “Opinions” subscales were found. DISCUSSION: This study provides evidence of the good psychometric properties of the PREMIS-French. This valid instrument will help to understand perinatal care providers’ barriers to IPV screening and management and will help to focus on specific lacks of knowledge for developing IPV education programs.