Research Article

The Exploding Spark: Workplace Violence in an Infectious Disease Hospital—A Longitudinal Study

Table 1

Characteristics of the observed sample.

20032005

Number of workers627
Male workers (%)268 (42.7)
Female workers (%)359 (57.3)
Age, mean ± SD (years)
Length of service, mean ± SD (years)
Physicians (%)79 (12.6)
Nurses (%)335 (53.4)
Other(1) (%)213 (34.0)
Work-related stress variables
Demand, range 5–20 (mean ± SD) (s.e.) (0.11) (0.11) 0.043*
Control, range 6–24 (mean ± SD) (s.e.) (0.13) (0.12)0.019*
Support, range 6–24 (mean ± SD) (s.e.) (0.13) (0.13)0.534 (n.s.)
Job strain (D/C rate) (mean ± SD) (s.e.) (0.01) (0.01)0.973 (n.s.)
Effort, range 6–30 (mean ± SD)
Reward, range 11–55 (mean ± SD)
Overcommitment, range 6–24 (mean ± SD)
ERI (E/R rate)
Anxiety range 0–9 (mean ± SD) 0.000***
Depression range 0–9 (mean ± SD) 0.000***
Anxious, score 6 or more ( ; %)142 (22.6)189 (30.1)
Depressed, score 4 or more ( ; %)108 (17.2)136 (21.7)

Cases of violence in 2004-2005Physical aggression
( ; %)
Verbal aggression
( ; %)
39 (6.2)87 (13.9)

Physicians (prevalence)15 (19.0)27 (34.2)
Nurses (prevalence)20 (6.0)51 (15.2)
Other(1) (prevalence)4 (1.9)9 (4.2)
0.000***0.000***

This category includes laboratory technicians, radiology technicians, physiotherapists, ancillary personnel, blue-collar workers, and clerks.
(2)The Wilcoxon signed-rank test; (3): Chi-square test; *significant at ; significant at ; ***significant at ; (n.s.): not significant.