The relationship between patients' gender and violence leading to staff injuries

Objective: Although recent research has found similar rates of violence by female and male patients mho have serious mental disorders, it is less clea r whether violence by female patients is as likely to result in injury as v iolence by male patients. This study examined the relationship between viol ent patients' gender and injury to staff members on an inpatient unit, Meth ods: All injuries to staff caused by violent behavior by patients on a lock ed university-based short-term inpatient unit were identified in a search o f institutional records from October 1988 to June 1999, We reviewed the med ical charts of the 76 patients who injured staff members to compare their d emographic and clinical characteristics with those of 314 patients hospital ized during the same period who did not injure staff. Results: Nearly half of the injuries (45 percent) were caused by female patients. Moreover, the proportion of injuries caused by female and male patients was similar to th e proportion of females and males in the comparison group. Multivariate log istic regression analysis showed that patients' gender was not associated w ith injury to staff, even when the analyses controlled for other correlates of violence such as history of violence, violent thought content expressed in the admission mental status examination, and history of noncompliance w ith medication, Conclusions: The findings suggest that injuries to staff me mbers on a unit treating both men and women are as likely to be caused by v iolence by female patients as by male patients, When a female patient exhib its signs of an elevated risk of violence, the significance of that risk sh ould not be discounted on the basis of her gender.