Patient initiated aggression and violence in Australian general practice.
BACKGROUND
Aggressive and violent behaviour by patients, or their relatives or friends, toward general practice staff is a matter of national concern. Forms of this behaviour include verbal and physical abuse, property damage, theft, stalking, sexual harassment and sexual abuse.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the prevalence of patient initiated aggression and violence in Australian general practice a review of the literature was undertaken. Electronic databases were searched for relevant articles from 1989-2009.


RESULTS
Four regional Australian studies and one national New Zealand study were identified for comparison. These studies provided varied data on the prevalence of patient aggression and violence perpetrated toward general practitioners. None of the quantitative studies included other general practice staff.


CONCLUSIONS
Australian data investigating patient initiated aggression and violence in general practice are limited. Findings should be interpreted with caution due to methodological limitations. The lack of national data needs to be addressed.
Forrest
Laura
L
Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. laura.forrest@anu.edu.au
Parker
Rhian
R
Hegarty
Kelsey
K
Tuschke
Hagen
H
D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D001315:Australia; D005194:Family Practice / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020380:Needs Assessment; D009520:New Zealand; D016272:Occupational Health; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015995:Prevalence; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*