Social Outbreak in Chile, and Its Association with the Effects Biological, Psychological, Social, and Quality of Life

Abstract

The World Health Organization has defined collective violence as the instrumental use of violence by people who identify themselves as members of a group against other individuals and have political, economic, or social objectives. In Chile, the “Social Outbreak” was used to describe an episode of collective violence, which began on October 18, 2019, triggered by a multitude of socioeconomic and political factors, with protests and mobilizations in the country’s large and small cities; in central, commercial, and residential areas, that lasted for several months, affecting a large part of the population. The objective of the present study was to associate the social outbreak in Chile with its biological, psychological, and social effects on people’s health and quality of life, as well as its characteristics in terms of exposure, proximity, type, and frequency. This was a cross-sectional study with non-probabilistic national-level sampling, conducted from 28 November 2019, to 3 March 2020. The instrument had four sections. A total of 2651 participants answered the survey; 70.8% were female, and the mean age was 35.2. The main disturbances perceived were protests (70.9%), alarm sounds (68.1%), shooting sounds (59.0%), and tear gas bombs (56.9%). When quantifying the magnitude of these associations, people who had a medium exposure have a higher probability (OR: 1.99, CI: 1.58; 2.50) of suffering three or more biological effects than people that have a low exposure, while people with higher exposition have a 4.09 times higher probability (CI: 3.11; 5.38). A similar pattern was observed regarding psychological effects, although social effects were primarily experienced by those with high exposure. Social networks, TV, and radio were the most used media among people who perceived a greater effect. People who lived, worked, or shopped near the disturbance’s areas show a higher proportion negative effect.