Table 1

Proportion of exposure to any type of WPV, non-physical and physical violence: overall estimate and subgroup analysis (12-month prevalence)

Any type of WPV	Reports (n)	Cases that experienced WPV/sample size (n)	Proportion (%)	95% CI	P value* between groups
Any type of WPV	78	69 416/130 158	61.9	56.1 to 67.6	P value* between groups
Sex†
Male	27	3686/6348	60.4	53.4 to 67.3	0.70
Female	30	24 860/47 730	59.0	53.3 to 64.7
Combined	47	38 463/73 647	61.5	52.7 to 70.4
NR	1	645/791	81.5	78.8 to 84.2
Study location
Asia	42	49 864/86 705	64.9	59.6 to 70.2	0.04
Europe	15	7559/24 709	48.1	34.6 to 61.6
North America	6	4029/6784	67.3	48.8 to 85.8
Australasia	7	4974/7349	70.9	63.9 to 78.0
Africa	7	2926/4509	59.2	39.8 to 78.6
Latin America	1	64/102	62.7	53.3 to 72.1
Setting‡
Prehospital settings	3	346/415	83.9	74.4 to 93.4	<0.001
Primary care	12	4898/19 046	50.7	34.8 to 66.6
General hospitals	43	51 502/88 593	66.2	61.3 to 71.2
Psychiatric/mental health	7	583/914	67.1	55.9 to 78.3
Mixed	14	5632/10 071	54.4	41.6 to 67.1
ED	17	4840/6424	79.4	75.2 to 83.6
Other	7	1683/4239	38.8	18.6 to 58.9
Income category
High	46	36 529/80 927	58.3	50.8 to 65.9	0.05
Low and middle	32	32 287/49 231	67.0	62.5 to 71.5	0.05
Study period
1990–1999	4	998/1633	65.6	51.1 to 80.0	0.75
2000–2009	13	3150/5924	58.5	43.6 to 73.5
2010–2018	61	65 268/122 601	62.3	55.8 to 68.8
Work schedules§
Day shifts	11	2163/4728	49.7	30.2 to 69.3	0.0007
Night shifts	8	1148/3608	39.4	22.6 to 56.3
Mixed shifts	9	17 262/24 815	72.8	66.0 to 79.6
Rotating shifts	3	332/2471	38.8	12.1 to 89.7
Unspecific shifts	60	47 952/97 898	60.9	54.2 to 67.5
Occupation¶
Physicians	26	9195/17 976	56.8	43.9 to 69.6	0.02
Nurses	44	44 739/81 747	59.2	51.7 to 66.7
Other healthcare professionals	12	2488/6768	44.4	26.1 to 62.6
Mixed	18	12 245/19 623	67.0	59.5 to 74.5
Non-physical violence	229	103 950/288 091	42.5	38.9 to 46.0
Type of non-physical violence
Verbal	112	58 577/123 001	57.6	51.8 to 63.4	<0.001
Sexual harassment	52	5314/62 363	12.4	10.6 to 14.2
Threats	48	12 210/50 848	33.2	27.5 to 38.9
Mixed	17	27 849/51 879	59.9	50.9 to 68.9
Sex**
Male	52	10 182/23 771	46.1	36.9 to 55.3	0.47
Female	69	42 051/99 082	46.0	40.2 to 51.8
Combined	156	50 773/161 830	46.1	36.9 to 55.3
NR	3	614/2108	30.5	6.1 to 67.1
Study location
Asia	113	62 597/160 236	45.5	40.4 to 50.7	0.002
Europe	41	10 935/54 163	31.6	27.1 to 36.1
North America	24	15 827/35 324	58.7	46.0 to 71.4
Australasia	29	8515/21 008	38.7	28.0 to 49.4
Africa	16	3532/10 222	32.7	21.5 to 44.0
Latin America	6	2544/7138	36.8	25.4 to 48.3
Setting††
Prehospital settings	10	1114/2646	43.5	26.9 to 60.0	<0.001
Primary care	27	9163/47 484	29.6	24.3 to 34.9
General hospitals	93	60 548/154 159	45.6	39.8 to 51.5
Psychiatric/mental health	25	2099/6270	37.1	17.9 to 56.3
Mixed	36	17 284/45 698	30.4	22.9 to 37.9
ED	49	7397/13 262	62.3	53.7 to 70.8
Other	22	6113/18 436	38.1	31.4 to 44.8
Income category					0.21
High	143	56 540/170 570	40.7	36.3 to 45.1
Low and middle	86	47 410/117 521	45.5	39.2 to 51.7
Study period					0.25
1990–1999	7	1607/3426	59.2	34.0 to 84.4
2000–2009	54	16 191/42 106	43.5	36.6 to 50.4
2010–2018	168	86 152/242 559	41.4	37.2 to 45.6
Work schedules‡‡					0.84
Day shifts	29	6685/27 650	41.8	35.5 to 48.0
Night shifts	16	3665/6555	48.7	32.6 to 64.9
Mixed shifts	41	26 274/75 983	42.5	34.6 to 50.4
Rotating shifts	13	6301/19 098	43.0	29.7 to 56.4
Unspecific shifts	159	58 739/177 254	40.5	36.4 to 44.6
Occupation§§					0.64
Physicians	73	19 737/44 537	40.1	36.7 to 50.4
Nurses	118	55 671/138 857	44.9	40.9 to 48.2
Other healthcare professionals	24	6830/18 824	41.0	32.6 to 49.2
Mixed	58	19 995/77 489	40.8	38.3 to 50.6
Physical violence	138	35 141/179 038	24.4	22.4 to 26.4
Sex¶¶
Male	34	3756/13 512	25.6	18.7 to 32.6	0.67
Female	39	16 051/75 346	21.2	17.5 to 24.9
Combined	96	15 189/89 064	24.7	22.7 to 26.7
NR	1	74/533	13.9	11.0 to 16.8
Study location
Asia	68	18 891/99 251	24.1	21.0 to 27.3	0.03
Europe	28	4817/34 005	20.1	15.3 to 25.0
North America	15	7101/21 936	37.3	31.9 to 42.8
Australasia	14	3413/14 152	28.2	20.1 to 36.4
Africa	10	780/5822	20.9	15.6 to 26.3
Latin America	3	138/3874	4.4	0.6 to 8.1
Setting***
Prehospital settings	5	214/1220	20.6	8.8 to 32.3	<0.001
Primary care	13	1014/23 312	7.1	4.7 to 9.4
General hospitals	60	20 344/99 665	26.5	23.0 to 29.9
Psychiatric/mental health	14	937/1861	50.6	34.8 to 66.4
Mixed	21	8313/35 051	16.0	9.7 to 22.3
ED	35	2494/8220	31.0	26.0 to 36.0
Other	11	2275/9639	27.9	20.5 to 35.4
Income category
High	82	23 356/112 883	25.0	22.5 to 27.5	0.62
Low and middle	56	17 784/66 157	23.6	20.1 to 27.0	0.62
Study period
1990–1999	5	317/1801	32.6	15.3 to 49.9	0.68
2000–2009	34	7245/29 272	24.0	19.0 to 28.9
2010–2018	99	27 578/147 967	24.3	22.0 to 26.6
Work schedules†††
Day shifts	18	1506/11 188	14.0	9.8 to 18.2	0.27
Night shifts	10	1400/4273	25.6	12.0 to 39.1
Mixed shifts	26	8738/43 207	24.2	19.6 to 28.8
Rotating shifts	8	1590/8475	17.3	11.1 to 23.5
Unspecific shifts	94	21 278/114 717	24.8	22.7 to 26.9
Occupation‡‡‡
Physicians	46	7898/32 312	18.0	13.3 to 22.7	0.04
Nurses	72	19 478/92 989	26.8	24.1 to 29.5
Other healthcare professionals	14	1092/8339	15.1	10.2 to 20.1
Mixed	34	6046/40 523	23.2	18.7 to 27.6

Australasia comprises Australia and New Zealand.
*P values for meta-regression.
†Twenty-seven articles reported their results by sex; therefore, there are 105 reports from 78 articles.
‡Eight studies reported their results by work settings; therefore, there are 91 reports from 78 articles.
§Eight studies reported their results by work schedules; therefore, there are 91 reports from 78 articles.
¶Twelve studies reported their results by occupation; therefore, there are 100 reports from 78 articles.
**Thirty-three studies reported their results by sex; therefore, there are 280 reports from 140 articles.
††Seventeen studies reported their results by work settings; therefore, there are 262 reports from 140 articles.
‡‡Nineteen studies reported their results by work schedules; therefore, there are 258 reports from 140 articles.
§§Eighteen studies reported their results by occupation; therefore, there are 273 reports from 140 articles.
¶¶Thirty-two studies reported their results by sex; therefore, there are 170 reports from 138 articles.
***Seventeen studies reported their results by work settings; therefore, there are 159 reports from 138 articles.
†††Fifteen articles reported their results by work schedules; therefore, there are 156 reports from 138 articles.
‡‡‡Nineteen studies reported their results by occupation; therefore, there are 166 reports from 138 articles.
ED, emergency department; NR, not reported; WPV, workplace violence.