Prevalence of Workplace Bullying and Its Associated Factors at a Multi-Regional Saudi Arabian Hospital: A Cross-Sectional Study

Figures & data

Table 1 Association of Workplace Bullying With Sample Characteristics

	Exposure to Workplace Bullying			P-value
	Yes n (%) 684 (63.7)	No n (%) 390 (36.3)	Total n (%) 1074 (100)
Gender  Male  Female	74 (48.7) 610 (66.2)	78 (51.3) 312 (33.8)	152 (14.2) 922 (85.8)	<0.001*
Age (years)  <30  30–40  >40	269(77.3) 139(46.8) 276(64.3)	79(22.7) 158(53.2) 153(35.7)	348(32.4) 297(27.7) 429(39.9)	<0.001*
Marital status  Single/separated  Married	373(69.9) 311(57.6)	161(30.1) 229(42.4)	536(49.7) 540(50.3)	<0.001*
Educational status  Diploma’s/Bachelor’s degree  Master’s/PhD degree	549(63.3) 135(65.2)	318(36.7) 72(34.8)	867(80.7) 207(19.3)	0.610
Nationality  Local  Expatriate	165(56.5) 519(66.4)	127(43.5) 263(33.6)	292(27.2) 782(72.8)	0.003*
Work experience (years)  ≤10  >10	411(70.0) 273(56.1)	176(30.0) 214(43.9)	587(54.7) 487(45.3)	<0.001*
Occupation  Nurses  Technicians  Administrative  Physician  Pharmacists	336(64.7) 74(53.2) 166(68.0) 100(68.5) 8(30.8)	183(35.3) 65(46.8) 78(32.0) 46(31.5) 18(69.2)	519(48.3) 139(12.9) 244(22.7) 146(13.6) 26(2.5)	<0.001*

Note: *Signifies statistical significance using Pearson’s chi-square test.

Abbreviations: n, frequency; %, percentage.

Table 2 Distribution of Workplace Bullying Incident Characteristics

	n(%) 684(100.0)
Type of bullying*  Verbal  Physical  Sexual	671(98.1) 81(11.8) 40(5.8)
Perpetrator of incidents  Patient  Relatives of patients (visitors)  Manager or supervisor  Employees	247(36.1) 202(29.5) 49(7.2) 186(27.2)
Time of incident  Day shift  Evening shift  Night shift	549(80.3) 46(6.7) 89(13.0)
Area of incident  Patient room  Treatment room/Clinic  Working station/office  Nonclinical areas	142(20.9) 157(23.0) 360(52.6) 24(3.5)
Reaction to workplace bullying*  Told friends/family  Reported to senior staff member  Told the person to stop  Told a colleague  Tried to defend self physically  Completed incident or accident form  Sought counseling  Transferred to another position  No action, pretended it never happened	331(48.4) 197(28.8) 183(26.8) 180(26.3) 124(18.1) 76(11.1) 55(8.0) 46(6.7) 71(6.6)
Causes of workplace bullying*  Misunderstanding  Lack of discipline to hold people accountable about their behavior  Concern of patients  Communication or Language barriers  Lack of explicit rights or procedure  Illness  Personal problem of coworker  Scapegoat for medical dispute  Poor training on WPB  Fault of oneself  Drinking problem	527(77.0) 398(58.2) 279(40.8) 267(39.0) 118(17.3) 106(15.5) 96(14.0) 26(3.8) 24(3.5) 23(3.4) 15(2.2)
Consequences to the perpetrator  None  Verbal warning issued  Written warning  Care discontinued  Counseling  Reported to police (prosecution)  Do not know	160(23.4) 230(33.6) 83(12.1) 58(8.5) 10(1.5) 9(1.3) 134(19.6)

Note: *Non-mutually exclusive.

Abbreviations: n, frequency; %, percentage.

Figure 1 Perpetrator of Work Place Bullying with the occupation of victims.

Table 3 Poisson Binary Regression Analyses of Factors Associated with Being a Victim of Workplace Bullying Stratified by Victims’ Occupation

	Nurse		Allied Health (Technicians and Administrative)		Physicians
	PRR [95% CI]	P-value	PRR [95% CI]	P-value	PRR [95% CI]	P-value
Gender  Male ^(Ref)  Female	0.83[0.67–1.03]	0.083	1.54[1.09–2.17]	0.014*	1.33[1.01–1.76]	0.041*
Age  ≥30^(Ref)  <30	1.30[1.14–1.48]	<0.001*	1.36[1.16–1.61]	<0.001*	1.12[0.85–1.46]	0.428
Marital status  Married ^(Ref)  Single	1.10[0.95–1.27]	0.206	0.95[0.80–1.13]	0.587	1.21[0.91–1.60]	0.187
Nationality  local ^(Ref)  Expatriate	1.14[0.94–1.38]	0.195	1.25[1.04–1.50]	0.017*	1.20[0.98–1.48]	0.084
Education  Lower ^(Ref)  Higher	0.76[0.66–0.88]	<0.001*	0.80[0.69–0.92]	0.002*	1.47[1.07–2.04]	0.018*
Intercept	0.76[0.57–1.03]	0.076	0.41[0.29–0.58]	<0.001*	0.31[0.22–0.44]	<0.001*

Note: *Significance of P < 0.05.

Abbreviations: ^(Ref), reference group; %, percentage; CI, confidence interval; PRR, prevalence rate ratio.