Characteristics of blunt and penetrating trauma among victims of physical violence: A retrospective study

• Published in: BMC public health Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 2073 - 7
• Main Authors: Zohrevandi, Behzad, Shahrestani, Mahsa Farzaneh, Mohammadnia, Hamideh, Asadi, Kamran, Khodadadi-Hassankiadeh, Naema
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 31-07-2024; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Abused women; Adolescent; Adult; Age groups; Aged; Aggression; Alcohol; Alcohol use; Amphetamines; Analysis; Blunt; Blunt trauma; Causes of; Chi-square test; Child; Comparative analysis; Complications and side effects; Crime Victims - psychology; Crime Victims - statistics & numerical data; Demographic aspects; Domestic violence; Drinking behavior; Drug abuse; Emergency medical care; Emergency medical services; Emergency service; Emergency services; Female; Health aspects; Hospitals; Humans; Injuries; Injury analysis; Injury prevention; Intervention; Iran - epidemiology; Male; Marital status; Middle Aged; Murders & murder attempts; Penetrating; Penetrating wounds; Physical Abuse - statistics & numerical data; Physical violence; Physiological aspects; Registries; Research facilities; Retrospective Studies; Smoking; Substance abuse; Substance use; Surgery; Therapeutic applications; Trauma; Victimization; Victims; Violence; Womens health; Wounds, Nonpenetrating - epidemiology; Wounds, Penetrating - epidemiology; Young Adult; Iran; United States > US; Physical violence; Emergency service; Blunt; Penetrating; Trauma
• ISSN: 1471-2458; 1471-2458
• DOI: 10.1186/s12889-024-18978-w

A significant number of referrals to the emergency departments is due to violence and conflict leading to serious injuries and death. The increasing number of such cases highlights the urgent need for investigating victimization of physical violence.
The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of demographic and clinical characteristics in victims of violence and classify them based on penetrating or blunt trauma.
The data of the patients who had been the victims of violence in 2020 were extracted from the Trauma Registry System(TRS) of the Guilan Road Trauma Research Center(GTRC). All analyses were performed using SPSS software version 24. The significance level was considered less than 0.05.
There was a significant difference in the type of violence-related trauma in different age groups (P < 0.001), based on sex (P = 0.002), and marital status (P = 0.012). A significant difference also existed between the trauma type and clinical variables including smoking (P = 0.032), history of alcohol drinking (P = 0.005), and other substance use (P = 0.002), the anatomical location of injury (P < 0.001) and therapeutic interventions (p < 0.001(.
Most of the clients of the violence suffered from blunt trauma, the severity of which was mild, and they were treated supportively without the need for surgery. Blunt trauma was seen more in women, divorcees, over 40 years and non-smokers. Penetrating trauma was observed more in lower limb injuries and alcohol and amphetamine users. Prevention programs and educational interventions should be programmed for the society long before men alcohol and amphetamine abusers reach their fourth decade of life. Accurately recording the type of physical violence, and the weapon used, and determining the injury severity score in TRS can lead to more reliable results in researching the field of violence issues.