Individual and organizational risk factors of work-related violence in the Danish elder care

The aim of this study was to explore individual and organizational risk factors of exposure to violence in the Elder Care Sector.

A questionnaire study conducted among 8134 health-care workers in the elder care in 36 municipalities was carried out between October 2004 and May 2005. Participation in the study was voluntary and data were treated confidentially.

Individual factors such as low age and seniority seemed to increase the risk of violence. Type of institution (nursing homes), occupation (health care assistants), shift-work, evening or night work, frequent physical contact with clients, higher emotional demands, a lower level of involvement at the workplace, lower leadership quality, and more role conflicts increased the risk of work-related violence. On the other hand, the study also demonstrated that the least violence was found at workplaces with high leadership quality, no role conflicts and high involvement in the workplace. Study strengths and limitations: The strengths of the study are that it is a large representative study consisting of Danish elder care workers in 36 municipalities and has a high response rate. A limitation is that the study is cross-sectional making it impossible to decide the direction of causal relationships.

The results of the study indicate that there is a possibility of reducing the prevalence of violence towards care-workers in the elder care if policies and resources to improve the working environment are implemented.