141st APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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279442
How does violence impact education workers?: Results from a state-based study


Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Hope Tiesman, PhD, MSPH, Division of Safety Research, CDC/NIOSH, Morgantown, WV
Srinivas Konda, MPH, Division of Safety Research, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Morgantown, WV
Scott Hendricks, MS, Division of Safety Research, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Morgantown, WV
Purpose: Non-fatal physical assaults and non-physical workplace violence (NP-WPV) are common among education workers, yet little is known about how this violence affects them. Here we describe the impact of physical and NP-WPV on quality of life, job stress, and job satisfaction among a cohort of education workers.

Methods: A statewide sample of 6,450 workers was drawn using de-identified membership lists provided by Pennsylvania's education unions. The sample was stratified on gender, occupation, and school location. A cross-sectional survey was mailed to participants during the 2009-2010 school year. Analyses were performed using Proc SURVEY in SAS.

Results: The percentage of those reporting being ‘always' stressed at work increased 23 points for those physically assaulted (8%, 31%, p<0.0001), 20 points for those experiencing NP-WPV (8%, 28%, p<0.0001), and 29 points for those experiencing both (8%, 37%, p<0.0001). The percentage of those with ‘very' high levels of job satisfaction decreased 19 points for those physically assaulted (46%, 27%, p=0.0003), 25 points for those experiencing NP-WPV (46%, 21%, p<0.0001), and 23 points for those experiencing both (46%, 23%, p=0.0003). Physical WPV resulted in a significantly higher mean number of poor physical health, mental health, and activity restricted days (mean=1.9, p<0.0001; 5.0, p<0.0001; 2.8, p<0.0001, respectively). Similar trends were seen for those experiencing NP-WPV (1.8, p<0.0001; 4.0, p<0.0001; 2.0, p<0.0001).

Conclusions: The impact of WPV reaches beyond physical injuries. Those who experienced WPV had significantly lower job satisfaction, higher self-reported health issues, and higher job stress than those who did not experience WPV.

Learning Areas:

Epidemiology

Learning Objectives:
Describe how physical and non-physical workplace violence impacted education workers in a single state during the 2009-2010 school year Discuss the role that workplace violence plays in the occupational safety of U.S. education workers

Keyword(s): Violence, Occupational Injury and Death

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I designed the study, methods, and research questions. I aided in data collection. I analyzed the data and prepared the abstract.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4174.0: Violence and self-inflicted injuries