Associations between workplace violence and suicidal ideation among Chinese medical staff: a propensity score matching analysis

ABSTRACT

Physical and mental health problems had been identified as the negative outcomes of workplace violence (WPV) against medical staff. Considering the proven associations between physical and mental health and suicidal ideation, it is reasonable to assume that WPV may associate with suicidal ideation. However, few studies were conducted to explore the relationship between WPV and their suicidal ideation against medical staff. Based on a cross-sectional design, 3, 426 medical staff working in general hospitals were interviewed in Shandong Province, China. Socio-demographic characteristics, work-related factors, psychological variables, WPV, and suicidal ideation were evaluated. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to explore the association between WPV and suicidal ideation. The prevalence of suicidal ideation among medical staff was 9.1% (312/3426), and 52.2% (1788/3426) of medical staff reported the WPV experience. Before PSM, we found that the association between WPV and suicidal ideation was statistically significant (aOR = 1.606, p < 0.01). After PSM, there was a statistically significant correlation between WPV and suicidal ideation (aOR = 1.525, p < 0.01). This study supported the correlations between WPV against medical staff and their suicidal ideation. The results of PSM further implied that WPV might cause suicidal ideation among medical staff. Psychological health, especially for suicidal ideation, should be paid attention for medical staff with WPV experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Suicidal ideation
• workplace violence
• medical staff
• propensity score matching
• cross-sectional study

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request.

Author contributions

All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Yifan Wang analyzed the data and wrote the draft, and Meixia Xu and Zhen Wei commented on the manuscript. Long Sun designed the study and commented on the draft of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, writing the paper, and the decision to submit the paper for publication.