Prevalence, characteristics, and consequences of verbal and physical violence against healthcare staff in Chinese hospitals during 2010–2020

• Published in: Journal of occupational health 2022-01, Vol.64 (1), p.e12341-n/a
• Main Authors: Jia, Chen, Han, Yijing, Lu, Wenping, Li, Ruofan, Liu, Weizheng, Jiang, Jianan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age groups; Aggression; Casualties; China; China - epidemiology; Crime; Delivery of Health Care; Emergency medical care; Emergency medical services; Frequency distribution; Gender; Health care; Health services; healthcare staff; Hospitals; Humans; Incentives; Internal medicine; Internet; Keywords; Male; Medical imaging; Medical personnel; Middle Aged; Nurses; Occupational health; Oncology; online search; Original; Otolaryngology; Patients; Physical Abuse; Prevalence; Regression analysis; Search engines; Security; Security personnel; Substance abuse treatment; Surgery; Violence; Workplace Violence
• ISSN: 1348-9585; 1341-9145; 1348-9585
• DOI: 10.1002/1348-9585.12341

Objectives This study investigated the characteristics of workplace violence (WPV) against Chinese healthcare staff and their casualties after severe physical violence (PV). Methods We scrutinized medical WPV incidents reported online and analyzed information on timing, location, violence, criminal incentives, and casualties following severe PV in China from 2010 to 2020. Results WPVs were mostly committed by young and middle‐aged male family members of the patients, especially in the emergency department (49.1%), and mostly associated with dissatisfaction with treatment effect (28.9%) in general. High medical costs (62.5%) were the leading cause of verbal violence (VV), whereas men predominantly committed PV (OR = 4.217, 95% CI: 1.439–12.359) owing to dissatisfaction with the healthcare staff's attitude (P