TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2011//
TI  - Aggressive patient behaviors related to medical care: a cross-sectional self-report survey
JO  - Primary care companion to CNS disorders
A1  - Sansone, Randy A.
A1  - Farukhi, Shahzad
A1  - Wiederman, Michael W.
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - 13
IS  - 4
N2  - Objective: To examine the self-reported prevalence of aggressive and/or disruptive behaviors by patients as related to their medical care.Method: In a cross-sectional, consecutive sample of internal medicine outpatients (N = 397), respondents reported on 17 aggressive and/or disruptive behaviors related to their medical care. Data were collected during November 2010.Results: In this sample, 48.9% of respondents endorsed at least 1 of the proposed aggressive behaviors; 9.1% endorsed 1 behavior, 20.4% endorsed 2 behaviors, 10.3% endorsed 3 behaviors, 5.5% endorsed 4 behaviors, and 3.5% endorsed 5 or more behaviors (the maximum being 11). The most commonly reported behaviors were talking negatively about medical personnel to family (41.3%) and friends (39.5%), threatening to hit or strike medical personnel (7.1%), and refusing to pay a bill because of dissatisfaction or anger (6.8%). No participant reported being escorted off premises by security or being charged with assault in a medical setting. For those who reported 1 or more aggressive behaviors, there were no gender differences, but younger and better educated patients were more likely to report such behaviors.Conclusions: While the majority of patients do not evidence aggressive behaviors related to their medical care, a small minority do report such behavior, some of which can be disruptive as well as dangerous.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 2155-7772
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.4088/PCC.11m01160
ID  - ref1
ER  -