Nonfatal Strangulation Knowledge and Experience in Health Care Professionals

Nonfatal strangulation (NFS) is a high-lethality act commonly associated with intimate partner violence and sexual assault. Strangulation-specific knowledge among U.S. health care professionals outside of forensic settings is not well characterized.

To examine NFS knowledge and clinical decision-making across health care roles and assess whether licensure type or clinical experience was associated with knowledge scores.

A cross-sectional survey was administered to 131 U.S. health care professionals. A 10-item composite knowledge score was analyzed using ANCOVA, controlling for years of experience.

Mean composite score was 5.68 (SD=1.576, range=2-9). Licensure type was significantly associated with scores (P=0.001, partial η²=0.120). Nursing professionals scored highest (M=6.22), significantly outperforming providers (M=5.42), prehospital (M=4.85), and allied health providers (M=4.43). Years of experience were not significant (P=0.412).

Nursing professionals had a significantly higher level of comfort than other healthcare roles, suggesting that education and experience are not uniformly distributed during schooling and on-the-job training. This may suggest that healthcare education would benefit from more broadly applied education, although the size of the study limits the generalizability of conclusions.

Strangulation knowledge varied by professional role and was not associated with clinical experience, highlighting the need for standardized, cross-disciplinary education.