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Changes of ambulance departures to assaults during COVID-19 pandemic restrictions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2022

V. Pisl ,
J. Vevera  and
J. Volavka
V. Pisl*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital in Pilsen, Charles University, Department Of Psychiatry, Plzen, Czech Republic
J. Vevera
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen, Charles University, Department Of Psychiatry, Plzen, Czech Republic
J. Volavka
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital in Pilsen, Charles University, Department Of Psychiatry, Plzen, Czech Republic
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Restrictions related to COVID-19 may affect aggressive behaviour. Increased incidence of gender-based, domestic, and intimate-partner violence was expected during the pandemic, however, retrospective analyses yielded contradicting results.

Objectives

Examine changes in frequency of assaults caused by pandemic restrictions, including separate analysis for male and female assault victims, for residential and non-residential location of assaults and for assaults related to domestic violence.

Methods

Weekly number of ambulance departures to injuries secondary to assaults in the Pilsen region, Czechia, during the COVID lockdown was compared to records from the three previous years using ANOVA and post hoc t-tests. Further, multilinear regression was used to model weekly number of ambulance departures between 1st January 2017 and 30th April 2021 based on presence of pandemic national emergency state, time, and seasonality.

Results

During pandemic lockdown, ambulance departures to assaults dropped by 43% compared to equivalent periods of the three previous years. The decrease was notable specifically among departures to male victims and to assaults in non-residential areas, with only small decrease observed for female victims and assaults related to domestic violence and no change found in frequency of assaults happening at home.

Conclusions

Lockdowns and restrictions of public life were associated with a decreased incidence of violent assaults. While the incidence decreased especially in males and in those assaulted outside of their homes, we found no support for an increase in domestic or gender related violence. Pandemic restrictions may serve as a protective rather than a risk factor for assaults.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

aggressionassaultlockdownCovid-19
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 65 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 30th European Congress of Psychiatry , June 2022 , pp. S519
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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