National report on aggressions to physicians in Spain 2010–2015: violence in the workplace—ecological study

The National Observatory of Aggressions to Physicians (ONAM) Workgroup, General Council of Official Medical Associations of Spain (CGCOM)

Aggressions against health staff is a phenomenon that is not widely studied worldwide. To date, there is no national study analyzing this situation in Spain. Our objective is to describe and analyze aggressions to physicians of the whole Spanish territory in the period 2010-2015, through an observational analytical study by conglomerates (ecological) with all aggressions to physicians identified by the 52 official medical associations of Spain over 6 years of study. There were 2419 aggressions on physicians, 51% on men. Primary care is the area that concentrates more incidents (54%) and the public sector is the most affected (89%). A third of the assaults were concentrated on professionals aged 46-55 years old. Cumulative incidence decreased from 20 aggressions × 10,000 physicians in 2010 to 15 × 10,000 physicians in 2015. The importance and seriousness of the problem of aggressions against physicians is verified through notifications to the registry. The collection method is different from others based on surveys, and therefore the figures are significantly lower than other studies. The scant denunciation by attacked physicians in Spain makes deceiving the real dimensions of the phenomenon.