title: Occupational violence against dental professionals in southern Nigeria.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the prevalence of workplace violence in Oral healthcare centres against Nigerian dental professionals.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire-based cross-sectional survey of 175 randomly selected dental professionals working in Oral healthcare centres of University Teaching Hospitals in Southern Nigeria was conducted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The survey response rate was 78.9%. The respondents were dentists (58.0%), dental nurses (18.1%), dental technologists (12.3%), dental therapists (8.0%) and dental record officers (3.6%). The prevalence of violence in Nigerian Oral healthcare centres was 31.9%. There was no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of violence against dentist and dental auxiliaries. Violence was often associated with long waiting time (27.3%), cancellation of appointment (13.6%), outcome of patient's treatment (11.4%), alcohol intoxication (9.1%), psychiatric patient (6.8%,) patient's bill (4.5%) and others (27.3%). Non-physical violence in form of loud shouting (50.0%) threat (22.7%), sexual harassment (6.8%) and swearing (2.3%) constituted the majority while physical violence in form of bullying and hitting constituted the remaining 18.2%. The main perpetrators of the violence were patients (54.5%) and patient's relatives/friends (18.2%). The expressed impact of violence among the respondents include fear (18.2%), impaired job performance (15.9%), psychological problems (13.6%) and off duty (9.1%). No impact was declared by 43.2% of respondents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence of workplace violence in Oral healthcare centres against dental professionals in Southern Nigeria was significant and had a substantial effect on dental professionals' well-being thus necessitating urgent attention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontics, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria. clementazodo@yahoo.com
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Azodo
authors.forename: E B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Ezeja
authors.forename: E E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Ehikhamenor
mesh_terms: D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003727:Dental Auxiliaries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003770:Dental Offices / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003815:Dentists / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009549:Nigeria / Q000453:epidemiology; D060051:Occupational Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D015995:Prevalence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014754:Violence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017132:Workplace