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In Reply: We agree with Dr Tayeb that the prevalence of domestic violence is difficult to determine. Domestic violence goes unreported in many cases, and there is not a unified method in the United States of gathering data on reported or unreported domestic violence cases.¹ We defined domestic violence in our study as a beating or forced intercourse by a spouse.² The questions were asked as behavioral questions: "In your lifetime, have you ever been subjected to beatings by a spouse?" and "In your lifetime, have you ever been forced to have sex by your spouse?" Had we included in our definition slapping, pushing, shoving, and threats with a weapon or throwing objects, it is likely the prevalence we found would have been higher.

The prevalence of domestic violence in our population-based study should not be compared with the findings from emergency department, clinics, or outpatient settings since survivors of . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Lynn L. Amowitz, MD, MSPH, MSc
lamowitz@rics.bwh.harvard.edu

Vincent Iacopino, MD, PhD
Physicians for Human Rights
Boston, Mass

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