Measuring Public Reaction to Violence Against Doctors in China: Interrupted Time Series Analysis of Media Reports

Abstract

Background Violence against doctors in China is a serious problem that has attracted attention from both domestic and international media. Objective This study investigates readers’ responses to media reports on violence against doctors to identify attitudes toward perpetrators and physicians and examine if such trends are influenced by national policies. Methods We searched 17 Chinese violence against doctors reports in international media sources from 2011 to 2020. We then tracked back the original reports and web crawled the 19,220 comments in China. To ascertain the possible turning point of public opinion, we searched violence against doctors–related policies from Tsinghua University ipolicy database from 2011 to 2020, and found 19 policies enacted by the Chinese central government aimed at alleviating the intense patient–physician relationship. We then conducted a series of interrupted time series analyses to examine the influence of these policies on public sentiment toward violence against doctors over time. Results The interrupted time series analysis (ITSA) showed that the change in public sentiment toward violence against doctors reports was temporally associated with government interventions. The declarations of 10 of the public policies were followed by increases in the proportion of online public opinion in support of doctors (average slope changes of 0.010, P<.05). A decline in the proportion of online public opinion that blamed doctors (average level change of –0.784, P<.05) followed the declaration of 3 policies. Conclusions The government’s administrative interventions effectively shaped public opinion but only temporarily. Continued public policy interventions are needed to sustain the reduction of hostility toward medical doctors.

Association between hospital legal constructions and medical disputes: A multi-center analysis of 130 tertiary hospitals in Hunan Province, China

“…Previous studies have demonstrated that misdiagnosis, a lack of informed consent, therapeutic plan errors, procedures that result in serious complications, and patient–physician mistrust were significantly associated with medical disputes ( 9 , 31 , 32 ). These factors may be very useful in guiding medical management.…”

Taking control of violence against doctors

“…What we think will likely happen is that scapegoating will be redirected-that is, we might see the enemyship being directed at individuals who recklessly exposed others to the virus, or to governments who failed to implement social distancing or failed to offer necessary materials, such as masks. Consistent with these observations, recent studies (Yang, Tai-Seale, et al, 2021;Yang, Wang et al, 2021;Yang, Young, et al, 2021) have found that people in China continue to show relatively aggressive intentions toward doctors in negative illness scenarios during the COVID-19 era, and in fact the threat of COVID-19 may exacerbate this tendency. There are also cultural differences in the manifestation of the scapegoating mechanism between China and the United States both before and during the pandemic: This research shows that individuals in China are more likely to blame individual caregivers, but those in the United States are more likely to blame the medical system as a whole.…”

“…Nevertheless, convergent operationalizations would be informative. For instance, Yang, Tai-Seale et al (2021), Yang, Wang et al (2021), andYang, Young et al (2021) examined archival data, namely public online comments in reaction to real-world incidents of violence against doctors. In other empirical research, the correlation between aggressive behavioural intentions and aggressive behaviour was significant (r = .168, p = .013; Santos et al, 2019).…”

“…Moreover, in a sample of nearly 2,500 medical providers from the Fujian and Henan Provinces, 50% reported at least one incident of patient‐inflicted violence over the previous year; in addition, experience of violence was a significant negative predictor of quality of life even after controlling for other relevant factors (Wu et al., 2014). Many medical professionals in China now report regretting their choice of career (both prior to and during the COVID‐19 pandemic; Wáng et al., 2015; Yang, Tai‐Seale, et al., 2021; Yang, Wang et al., 2021; Yang, Young, et al., 2021; Zhan et al., 2019), leading some to anticipate an impending crisis in the health services.…”

Impact of adverse event reporting system on burnout and job satisfaction of nurses in China: a nationwide cross-sectional study using a multilevel modeling approach

“…Workplace violence from patients is an increasing threat to the safety and well-being of healthcare workers in China. In recent years, high rates of workplace violence against healthcare professionals have often been reported in different settings 12,13 . In cases of serious violence, there were murders and injuries, such as a doctor who had acid poured on his face and another whose throat was cut 14 .…”