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Aggression, mini-aggression, and abuse against health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 pandemic brought multiple negative consequences that go beyond the direct damage caused by the disease and that affect health systems as well. Complaints of attacks against health care workers became frequent and concerning. The objective of this survey was to characterize the...

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Autores principales: Garcia-Zamora, S, Pulido, L, Antoniolli, M, Garcia, D, Perez, G, Priotti, M, Zaidel, E, Lopez-Santi, R, Vazquez, G, Chango-Azanza, D X, Nunez-Mendez, R, Cabral, L T, Sosa-Liprandi, A, Miranda-Arboleda, A F, Baranchuk, A
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9779786/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ehjdh/ztac076.2826
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author Garcia-Zamora, S
Pulido, L
Antoniolli, M
Garcia, D
Perez, G
Priotti, M
Zaidel, E
Lopez-Santi, R
Vazquez, G
Chango-Azanza, D X
Nunez-Mendez, R
Cabral, L T
Sosa-Liprandi, A
Miranda-Arboleda, A F
Baranchuk, A
author_facet Garcia-Zamora, S
Pulido, L
Antoniolli, M
Garcia, D
Perez, G
Priotti, M
Zaidel, E
Lopez-Santi, R
Vazquez, G
Chango-Azanza, D X
Nunez-Mendez, R
Cabral, L T
Sosa-Liprandi, A
Miranda-Arboleda, A F
Baranchuk, A
author_sort Garcia-Zamora, S
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 pandemic brought multiple negative consequences that go beyond the direct damage caused by the disease and that affect health systems as well. Complaints of attacks against health care workers became frequent and concerning. The objective of this survey was to characterize the frequency and type of violent behavior against front-line professionals in Latin America. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A cross-sectional electronic survey was carried out between January 11th to February 28th, 2022. Different health care workers from Latin America who have been delivering care at least from March 2020, regardless of whether they assist or not patients with COVID-19 were included. A non-probabilistic snowball sampling was performed, and the survey was RESULTS: The survey was responded by 3,544 participants from 19 countries (Figure 1); 58.5% were women, and the mean age was 41.9±11 years. The 70.8% were doctors, 16% nurses, 3.4% physiotherapists, and the remaining 9.8% had other functions within the health team. About 85.1% of physicians were specialists: 33.9% were cardiologists, 14.4% were intensivists or emergency physicians, 10.9% had some surgical specialty, 7.7% were pediatricians or related subspecialties, and the remaining 33.1% had other specialties. The 36.3% and 28.8% worked in public and private practice respectively, the remaining worked in both. Direct and regular care to COVID-19 patients was provided by 74.7% of all contestants. Among the participants, 54.8% reported acts of violence: 95.6% suffered verbal violence, 11.1% physical violence, and 19.9% other types. 39.5% of respondents experienced it at least once a week. The acts of violence involved patients' relatives (32%), or patients together with their relatives (35.1%). The victims rated the stress level of these events with an average of 8.2±1.8 points (scale from 1 to 10). Approximately half of the health personnel who suffered an assault experienced psychosomatic symptoms after the traumatic event (Figure 2). Among the victims of violence, 56.2% considered changing their care tasks, and 33.6% abandoning their profession. However, only 23% of the health personnel attacked stated that they had made some type of legal action regarding these acts. In a logistic regression model, doctors (OR 1.95, p<0.01), nurses (OR 1.77, p=0.001), and administrative staff (OR 3.20, p<0.01) suffered more violence than other health workers. Women more frequently suffered violence (OR 1.56, p<0.01), as well as those who worked with patients with COVID-19 (OR 3.59, p<0.01). Conversely, a lower probability of violence was observed at older ages (OR 0.96, p<0.01). CONCLUSION: We detected a high prevalence of violence against health personnel in Latin America during the current pandemic. Those caring for COVID-19 patients, younger staff, and women were found to be more vulnerable. It is imperative to develop strategies to mitigate these acts and their repercussions on the health team. FUNDING ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Type of funding sources: None.
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spelling pubmed-97797862023-01-27 Aggression, mini-aggression, and abuse against health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic Garcia-Zamora, S Pulido, L Antoniolli, M Garcia, D Perez, G Priotti, M Zaidel, E Lopez-Santi, R Vazquez, G Chango-Azanza, D X Nunez-Mendez, R Cabral, L T Sosa-Liprandi, A Miranda-Arboleda, A F Baranchuk, A Eur Heart J Digit Health Abstracts INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 pandemic brought multiple negative consequences that go beyond the direct damage caused by the disease and that affect health systems as well. Complaints of attacks against health care workers became frequent and concerning. The objective of this survey was to characterize the frequency and type of violent behavior against front-line professionals in Latin America. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A cross-sectional electronic survey was carried out between January 11th to February 28th, 2022. Different health care workers from Latin America who have been delivering care at least from March 2020, regardless of whether they assist or not patients with COVID-19 were included. A non-probabilistic snowball sampling was performed, and the survey was RESULTS: The survey was responded by 3,544 participants from 19 countries (Figure 1); 58.5% were women, and the mean age was 41.9±11 years. The 70.8% were doctors, 16% nurses, 3.4% physiotherapists, and the remaining 9.8% had other functions within the health team. About 85.1% of physicians were specialists: 33.9% were cardiologists, 14.4% were intensivists or emergency physicians, 10.9% had some surgical specialty, 7.7% were pediatricians or related subspecialties, and the remaining 33.1% had other specialties. The 36.3% and 28.8% worked in public and private practice respectively, the remaining worked in both. Direct and regular care to COVID-19 patients was provided by 74.7% of all contestants. Among the participants, 54.8% reported acts of violence: 95.6% suffered verbal violence, 11.1% physical violence, and 19.9% other types. 39.5% of respondents experienced it at least once a week. The acts of violence involved patients' relatives (32%), or patients together with their relatives (35.1%). The victims rated the stress level of these events with an average of 8.2±1.8 points (scale from 1 to 10). Approximately half of the health personnel who suffered an assault experienced psychosomatic symptoms after the traumatic event (Figure 2). Among the victims of violence, 56.2% considered changing their care tasks, and 33.6% abandoning their profession. However, only 23% of the health personnel attacked stated that they had made some type of legal action regarding these acts. In a logistic regression model, doctors (OR 1.95, p<0.01), nurses (OR 1.77, p=0.001), and administrative staff (OR 3.20, p<0.01) suffered more violence than other health workers. Women more frequently suffered violence (OR 1.56, p<0.01), as well as those who worked with patients with COVID-19 (OR 3.59, p<0.01). Conversely, a lower probability of violence was observed at older ages (OR 0.96, p<0.01). CONCLUSION: We detected a high prevalence of violence against health personnel in Latin America during the current pandemic. Those caring for COVID-19 patients, younger staff, and women were found to be more vulnerable. It is imperative to develop strategies to mitigate these acts and their repercussions on the health team. FUNDING ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Type of funding sources: None. Oxford University Press 2022-12-22 /pmc/articles/PMC9779786/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ehjdh/ztac076.2826 Text en Reproduced from: European Heart Journal, Volume 43, Issue Supplement_2, October 2022, ehac544.2826, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehac544.2826 by permission of Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. The opinions expressed in the Journal item reproduced as this reprint are those of the authors and contributors, and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Society of Cardiology, the editors, the editorial board, Oxford University Press or the organization to which the authors are affiliated. The mention of trade names, commercial products or organizations, and the inclusion of advertisements in this reprint do not imply endorsement by the Journal, the editors, the editorial board, Oxford University Press or the organization to which the authors are affiliated. The editors and publishers have taken all reasonable precautions to verify drug names and doses, the results of experimental work and clinical findings published in the Journal. The ultimate responsibility for the use and dosage of drugs mentioned in this reprint and in interpretation of published material lies with the medical practitioner, and the editors and publisher cannot accept liability for damages arising from any error or omissions in the Journal or in this reprint. Please inform the editors of any errors. © The Author(s) 2022. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
spellingShingle Abstracts
Garcia-Zamora, S
Pulido, L
Antoniolli, M
Garcia, D
Perez, G
Priotti, M
Zaidel, E
Lopez-Santi, R
Vazquez, G
Chango-Azanza, D X
Nunez-Mendez, R
Cabral, L T
Sosa-Liprandi, A
Miranda-Arboleda, A F
Baranchuk, A
Aggression, mini-aggression, and abuse against health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic
title Aggression, mini-aggression, and abuse against health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full Aggression, mini-aggression, and abuse against health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_fullStr Aggression, mini-aggression, and abuse against health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Aggression, mini-aggression, and abuse against health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_short Aggression, mini-aggression, and abuse against health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_sort aggression, mini-aggression, and abuse against health care workers during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Abstracts
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9779786/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ehjdh/ztac076.2826
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