Demographic and socioeconomic risk factors of adult violent victimization from an accident and emergency department and forensic medicine perspective: A register-based case-control study

Abstract 

Objectives

To describe demographic and socioeconomic risk factors of adult violent victimization leading to contact with an emergency department and/or an institute of forensic medicine based on a case-control study design.

Design

A register-based case-control study comparing demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of 10,799 adult victims of violence (cases) and 53,986 randomly selected population-based controls matched for age, gender, and date.

Data sources

Cases were included from a Danish emergency department and a Danish institute of forensic medicine. Demographic and socioeconomic data for cases and controls were extracted from two national longitudinal registers.

Statistics

Data were analysed using logistic regression in a semi-adjusted model adjusting for age, gender, and year, and a fully adjusted model including several variables.

Results

Factors positively associated with adult violent victimization were “being a pensioner” (OR: 4.71; 95% CI: 4.18–5.30), “being unemployed” (OR: 3.15; 95% CI: 2.85–3.48), and “not living with a partner” (OR: 2.93; 95% CI: 2.74–3.14), whereas the factors strongly negatively associated with adult violent victimization was “being a student” (OR: 0.72; 95% CI: 0.63–0.83). In the semi-adjusted analysis a foreign citizenship of a country outside Europe was significantly associated with adult violent victimization (OR: 1.79; 95% CI: 1.60–2.00), whereas in the fully adjusted analyses the association decreased to an insignificant level.

Conclusions

Our findings emphasize the multifaceted nature of injuries from violence. The findings from this study indicated potential risk factors, which should be specifically addressed when planning preventive strategies.

Keywords: Violence, Socioeconomic factors, Risk factors, Unemployment, Adult