ReviewBMC public health2021
Six things to know about the homicides of doctors: a review of 30 years from Italy.
Review in BMC public health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Workplace Violence Against Nurses and Its Association With Mental Health and Turnover Intention: A National Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of nursing management · 2026Article
- Risk Assessment of Workplace Violence Against Nurses: How Data Collection Methods Influence Results-A Swedish and Italian Cross-Sectional Study.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2025Article
- Violence against Health Workers: A Global Challenge with Serious Health Consequences.Iranian journal of public health · 2025Article
- Workplace Violence Against Healthcare Professionals in Iran: A Tragic Wake-Up Call.Archives of Iranian medicine · 2025Article
- Tracking Workplace Violence over 20 Years.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- The growing burden of workplace violence against healthcare workers: trends in prevalence, risk factors, consequences, and prevention - a narrative review.EClinicalMedicine · 2024Review
- Violence Against Physicians in the Workplace: Trends, Causes, Consequences, and Strategies for Intervention.Current psychiatry reports · 2022Review
- Homicide rates are spatially associated with built environment and socio-economic factors: a study in the neighbourhoods of Toronto, Canada.BMC public health · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundHealthcare workers have a 16 times greater risk of suffering workplace violence than workers in other sectors and around 50% experience workplace violence in the course of their career. The objective of this study is to explore the characteristics and circumstances of work-related killings of doctors.
methodsWork-related homicides of doctors over the period 1988-2019 were identified retrospectively through the Italian national statistical agencies. Variables such as perpetrator, motive and location of the crime were obtained through forensic psychiatric work. After classification, the absolute and percent values of the main characteristics of the homicides were calculated.
resultsOver the period considered, 21 doctors were killed in Italy in connection with their professional activity. In 52% (n = 11) of cases, the killer was one of the doctor's patients, in 29% (n = 6) of cases it was a patient's relative, in 19% (n = 4) an occasional patient (first consultation). The location of the homicide was a community clinic in 48% (n = 10) of cases, the street in 19% (n = 4) of cases, the doctor's home in 14% (n = 3), the hospital in 14% (n = 3) and the patient's home in 5% (n = 1). In 57% (n = 12) of cases the perpetrator was not affected by any mental disorders. The motive for the homicide was revenge in 66.7% (n = 14) of cases; in 28.6% (n = 6) the revenge was preceded by stalking.
conclusionsDoctors should be aware that the risk of being killed is not limited to hospital settings and that their patients' family members might also pose a threat to them.
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