Prevalence and correlates of workplace violence against medical assistants in Germany: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background Workplace violence is widespread, but studies on workplace violence against health professions in outpatient settings are sparse. We aimed to examine, for the first time, the prevalence of workplace violence against medical assistants as well as potential sociodemographic, occupational and health-related correlates of the exposure to workplace violence. Methods We used data from a survey (03–05/2021) among medical assistants in Germany (n = 424). We assessed the 12–month prevalence (yes/no) of verbal violence, physical violence, and sexual harassment as well as the types of perpetrators of workplace violence. Further, information was gathered on sociodemographic (e.g., age, educational level), occupational (e.g., years in job), and mental health-related factors (i.e., anxiety, depression). The 12–month prevalences of the different types of workplace violence were merged into a single variable (“any workplace violence” vs. none) for association analysis. We ran multivariable Poisson regression models to examine potential associations between sociodemographic and occupational correlates (i.e., independent variables) with any workplace violence as dependent variable and in addition between any workplace violence (independent variable) and dichotomized mental health as dependent variable. Results Overall, 59.4% of the medical assistants reported verbal violence, 5.9% reported physical violence, 3.8% reported sexual harassment, and 60.1% reported any workplace violence in the previous 12 months. Patients were reported to be the main perpetrators, followed by patients’ relatives. Younger age, being single, and working in a medical care center were sociodemographic and occupational correlates of workplace violence (PRs ≥ 1.27). Workplace violence was significantly associated with mental health variables (PRs ≥ 1.72). Conclusion Medical assistants experience workplace violence, in particular verbal violence. To devise preventive measures, prospective studies are needed to confirm the potential risk groups for workplace violence and the potential mental health sequels of workplace violence observed in our study.

Explorando las raíces de la violencia en estudiantes de medicina de último año (internos) en Ecuador.

“…Sun y colaboradores en 2022, mostraron que el 38% de los participantes había reportado experimentar violencia psicológica, un dato muy alejado de nuestra realidad (10). Mambrey y colaboradores, en 2023, identificaron porcentajes de violencia verbal en Alemania, que alcanzaron un 60%, superiores a los informados en China, aunque inferiores a los registrados en el presente estudio (11). En este estudio no se encontró violencia física con arma u objeto en ninguno de los casos, a diferencia de un estudio en China realizado por Xing y colaboradores en 2015, en el que más de la mitad de las agresiones físicas fueron con algún tipo de arma (12).…”