Prevalence of violence victimization among patients seen in an urban public hospital walk-in clinic.

OBJECTIVES

To study the prevalence of serious physical interpersonal violence and to identify the types of perpetrators, the frequency of occurrence, the time since the violence occurred, the risk profiles, and other factors related to victimization.

METHODS

One-week survey of all consecutively registered patients and their visitors in an urban public hospital adult walk-in clinic, using an anonymous self-administered questionnaire.

RESULTS

Of the 1,504 patients, 1,041 (69.2%) completed the questionnaire. The reported experience of serious physical violence victimization for the whole study population, both patients (n = 1,041) and visitors (n = 155), was 47.9% (573/1,196). A violence victim was more likely to be male [odds ratio (OR) = 1.41, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.11, 1.78], African-American (OR = 1.27, 95% CI: 0.98, 1.63), aged 45 years or younger (OR = 1.55, 95% CI: 1.19, 2.03), and single (OR = 1.47, 95% CI: 1.16, 1.86). Alcohol use and drug use were clearly associated with violence victimization, with prevalence ORs of 2.26 (95% CI: 1.80, 2.85) for alcohol and 3.68 (95% CI: 2.66, 5.09) for drugs.

CONCLUSION

A history of serious physical violence victimization is common in inner-city hospital walk-in clinic patients. Walk-in clinics in urban areas of high violence, therefore, may prove to be important places for intervention and prevention of violence.