Violence against healthcare professionals in intensive care units: a systematic review and meta-analysis of frequency, risk factors, interventions, and preventive measures

Table 1 Main findings from included studies

Origin Years of publication Number of studies	Frequency range of reported verbal violence	Frequency range of reported physical violence	Frequency range of reported sexual violence	Range of reported violent incidents with patients as main perpetrators	Range of reported violent incidents with relatives/family as main perpetrators	Reported violence in ICUs when compared to non-ICU wards
North America 2001–2022 (18 studies) [24, 25, 29, 37, 42, 45, 47, 49, 56, 57, 60, 62, 70, 71, 74, 87, 88, 90]	17–79%	7–60%	5–42%	35–98%	2–76%	RR 2.3 (95% CI 1–4)[25] OR 0.9 (95% CI 0.4–1.9)[37] to 4.9 (95% CI 2.6–9.2)[47]
South America 2018–2022 (3 studies) [44, 64, 83]	73–85%	0–25%	0–12%	53%^a [44]	18%^a [44]	OR 5.8 (95% CI 2–21)[64]
Europe 2002–2019 (12 studies) [28, 35, 38, 46, 51, 53, 54, 63, 66, 75, 89, 94]	38–97%	11–83%	68%^a [94]	35–87%	3–79%	OR 1.4 (95% CI 1–2)[53]
Africa 2017–2022 (2 studies) [36, 65]	55%	7–9%	2%^a [65]	NR	NR	No statistical difference
Asia 2012–2023 (36 studies) [27, 30,31,32,33,34, 39,40,41, 43, 48, 50, 52, 55, 58, 59, 61, 67, 68, 72, 73, 76,77,78,79,80,81,82, 84,85,86, 91,92,93, 95, 96]	19–90%	4–80%	3–23%	9–95%	6–82%	OR 0.2 (95% CI 0.0–1.1)[93] to 22.9 (95% CI 3–181)[52]
Australia & New Zealand 2019–2022 (4 studies) [16, 17, 26, 69]	57%^a [69]	NR	13%^a [69]	8–35%	0–2%	NR

ISSN: 1364-8535