The information in two articles of the 26 November 2004 issue of the NZMJ (Fanslow J, Robinson E. Violence against women in New Zealand: prevalence and health consequences plus Koziol-McLain J, Gardiner J, Batty P, et al. Prevalence of intimate partner violence among women presenting to an urban adult and paediatric emergency care department; http://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/117-1206/) was obtained by interviews of the married women, with no recorded contact or response from the husbands involved.

The evidence is therefore highly suspect and the articles of little value in making a significant contribution to the important problem of domestic violence. There is no attempt to evaluate the verbal abuse and other forms of misbehaviour for which the wives may be responsible.

The other problem is of course a very important one, especially in relation to the children of the home. My awareness of the existence of this work was from an article in the New Zealand Herald giving publicity to the investigation and its results.

It is therefore surprising to learn that Ms Janet Fanslow, who is cited in one of the articles as dealing with correspondence, does not respond directly but only via letters to the Editor of the NZMJ.