Violence Against Health Care Providers: A Mixed-Methods Study from Karachi, Pakistan.

BACKGROUND: Violence against health care providers (HCPs) remains a significant public health problem in developing countries, affecting their performance and motivation. OBJECTIVES: To report the quantity and perceived causes of violence committed upon HCPs and identify strategies intended to prevent and de-escalate it. METHODS: This was a mixed-methods concurrent study design (QUAN-QUAL). A structured questionnaire was filled in on-site by trained data collectors for quantitative study. Sites were tertiary care hospitals, local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) providing health services, and ambulance services. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions at these same sites, as well as with other stakeholders including media and law enforcement agencies. RESULTS: One-third of the participants had experienced some form of violence in the last 12 months. Verbal violence was experienced more frequently (30.5%) than physical violence (14.6%). Persons who accompanied patients (58.1%) were found to be the chief perpetrators. Security staff and ambulance staff were significantly more likely to report physical violence (p = 0.001). Private hospitals and local NGOs providing health services were significantly less likely to report physical violence (p = 0.002). HCPs complained about poor facilities, heavy workload, and lack of preparedness to deal with violence. The deficiencies highlighted predominantly included inadequate security and lack of training to respond effectively to violence. Most stakeholders thought that poor quality of services and low capacity of HCPs contributed significantly to violent incidents. CONCLUSION: There is a great need to design interventions that can help in addressing the behavioral, institutional, and sociopolitical factors promoting violence against HCPs. Future projects should focus on designing interventions to prevent and mitigate violence at multiple levels.

Coverage and predictors of COVID-19 vaccination in rural districts of Pakistan.

Background: One of the keys to preventing a re-emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic is the attainment and maintenance of high vaccination coverage in urban and rural areas. Aims: To estimate the coverage of COVID-19 vaccination in a rural population and identify the determinants of vaccination. Methodology: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in April 2023 in 5 rural districts of Sindh Province, Pakistan. From each district, 30 clusters (villages) were randomly selected, and 7 households were randomly sampled from each cluster using the 30/7 technique. Household members above 12 years of age were included. Vaccination status was categorized as non-vaccinated, partially vaccinated (either with 1 dose or without booster) and completely vaccinated (2 doses with 1 booster). Adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals using multinomial logistic regression were computed to determine the factors associated with partial and complete vaccination. Data was analysed using SPSS version 20. Results: Among the 3545 individuals surveyed across 1050 households, 25.9% were not vaccinated, 55.0% were partially vaccinated, and 19.1% were fully vaccinated. Younger age, lack of formal education and residing in flood-affected districts were significantly negatively associated with being vaccinated, while living at <5 km from a vaccination facility was significantly positively associated with partial and complete vaccination. Residents of Dadu (OR=0.03, 95% CI=0.01-0.04), Jamshoro (OR=0.05, 95% CI=0.03-0.08), Hyderabad (OR=0.03, 95% CI=0.02-0.05), and Tando Allahyar (OR=0.09, 95% CI=0.05-0.15) districts were significantly less likely to be completely vaccinated than those in Tharparkar. The most common reasons for not being vaccinated were, the perception that COVID-19 is mild (34.5%), fear of side-effects (22.7%), unavailability of the vaccine (19.8%), and fear of acquiring COVID-19 infection through the vaccine (15.8%). Conclusion: Vaccination coverage was low in some of the districts, particularly the flood-affected districts, mainly due to certain myths. There is a need for community outreaches to debunk myths about COVID-19 vaccination among these rural populations.

Effect of low-cost interventions to reduce the incidence of violent events in two public sector tertiary-care emergency departments, Pakistan.

Background: Violence against health care workers has been widely reported in Pakistan. Aims: This study, from September 2019 to April 2020, aimed to determine the effect of low-cost interventions to reduce violent events in two tertiary-care emergency departments in Karachi and Peshawar, Pakistan. Methods: In phase one, a surveillance system was established in each department and information on violent events was recorded for three months. In phase two, low-cost interventions designed to reduce violent events were introduced, e.g. awareness-raising material on violence for patients, training for health care workers and visitor identification cards. Violent events were then recorded for another three months and the percentage difference in number of violent events was calculated. Results: In Karachi, 256 violent events occurred before the intervention and 225 after the intervention, a 12.1% reduction. Physical violence events decreased significantly by 42.9% (P = 0.044). The number of events perpetrated by health care workers decreased by 61.9% (P = 0.016) while those perpetrated by patients decreased only by 5.7% (P = 0.538). In Peshawar, 90 violent events occurred before the intervention and 45 events after, a 50.0% reduction (P = 0.009). The number of events perpetrated by health care workers was the same in both phases. Events perpetrated by patients or their companions decreased significantly by 59.72% (P = 0.001). Conclusion: Violence against health care workers can be reduced significantly by improving their prevention and de-escalation skills. Client educational interventions, supplemented with hospital regulations and patient guidance, can also help reduce the incidence of violent events.

The magnitude and determinants of violence against healthcare workers in Pakistan.

Objectives: To determine the magnitude and determinants of violence against healthcare workers (HCWs) and to identify the predominant types and causes of violence experienced by them. Methodology: A cross-sectional survey based on structured questionnaire adopted from previous surveys and qualitative data was conducted in 4 large cities and 12 districts in 3 provinces of Pakistan. The survey covered 8579 from all cadres of HCWs, including doctors, nurses, technicians, support staff, ambulance workers, vaccinators, lady health visitors, midwives and lady health workers (LHWs). The predictors of overall violence experienced, physical violence experienced and verbal violence experienced were separately analysed for tertiary care hospitals, secondary care hospitals, primary care hospitals and field-level HCWs. Logistic regression was used to compute adjusted ORs with 95% CIs for the association of different factors with the violence experienced. Results: More than one-third (38.4%) reported having experienced any form of violence in the last 6 months. Verbal violence was the most commonly experienced form (33.9%), followed by physical violence (6.6%). The main reasons for physical violence were death of patients (17.6%), serious condition of patients (16.6%) and delay in care (13.4%). Among the different types of field HCWs, emergency vehicle operators were significantly more likely to experience verbal violence compared with LHWs (adjusted OR=1.97; 95% CI 1.31 to 2.94; p=0.001). Among hospital HCWs, those working in private hospitals were significantly less likely to experience physical violence (adjusted OR=0.52; 95% CI 0.38 to 0.71; p=0.001) and verbal violence (adjusted OR=0.57; 95% CI 0.48 to 0.68; p=0.001). Conclusion: Violence against HCWs exists in various forms among all cadres and at different levels of care. The gaps in capacity, resources and policies are evident. Specific strategies need to be adopted for different types of HCWs to protect them against violence.*The study was conducted under the framework of ICRC's Healthcare in Danger Initiative for protection of healthcare against Violence.