Violence against health personnel before and during the health contingency COVID-19.

Abstract

Violence against health personnel is an understudied phenomenon in Mexico, which has increased during periods of health contingency. To identify the prevalence and type of violence against health professionals before and during the COVID-19 health contingency and determine the characteristics of the worker with the highest exposure. Cross-sectional descriptive study, carried out during April of 2020, in 562 health workers, who answered a sociodemographic identification card and a questionnaire to know the characteristics, types and consequences of aggression before and during the contingency, through an electronic and anonymous platform. A non-probabilistic sampling (snowball) was used in different states of Mexico. 47.7% of the participants experienced aggressions, 12.8% verbal type and 34.9% verbal/physical aggressions during the last year, where women showed to be more attacked (chi squared = 12.12, p = 0.000). During health contingency, 16.8% perceived aggression, 13.2% verbal type and 3.6% verbal/physical aggression, with nurses being the most attacked (chi squared = 5.57, p = 0.018). A logistic regression model confirmed that being a woman and belonging to nursing profession has, respectively as far as 2.5 and 3 times more risk of suffering violence. Violence against health personnel requires immediate strategies, especially in critical periods in the community, where aggressions occur inside and outside of hospitals, which have an impact on worker's safety and health institutions.