The Effect of Workplace Bullying Perception on Psychological Symptoms: A Structural Equation Approach

BACKGROUND: The aims of this study were to determine the extent of workplace bullying perceptions among the employees of a Faculty of Medicine, evaluating the variables considered to be associated, and determining the effect of workplace bullying perceptions on their psychological symptoms evaluated by the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed involving 355 (88.75%) employees. RESULTS: Levels of perceived workplace bullying were found to increase with the increasing scores for BSI and BSI sub-dimensions of anxiety, depression, negative self, somatization, and hostility (all p < 0.001). One point increase in the workplace bullying perception score was associated with a 0.47 point increase in psychological symptoms evaluated by BSI. Moreover, the workplace bullying perception scores were most strongly affected by the scores of anxiety, negative self, depression, hostility, and somatization (all p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The present results revealed that young individuals, divorced individuals, faculty members, and individuals with a chronic disease had the greatest workplace bullying perceptions with our study population. Additionally, the BSI, anxiety, depression, negative self, somatization, and hostility scores of the individuals with high levels of workplace bullying perceptions were also high.

Evaluation of unintentional injuries sustained by children: a hospital based study from Ankara-Turkey

Unintentional injuries are one of the leading causes of death, hospitalization and disability across the world. Detailed work on child injury in low-income and middle-income countries began more recently and is now indicating priorities for prevention. This study aims to draw attention to the subject with the assessment of the injuries sustained by the study group. Data of the descriptive study was collected at the Emergency Department's trauma section of a Training and Research Hospital, located in Ankara during the period of October-November 2010. Children visiting the hospital due to an injury under the age of 18 were included to the study group by assent of the child and consent of the parents. Of the study group 75.3% were boys, 35.31% were 11-15 year of age. The most frequent cause of the injuries were falls among boys [48.3%], girls [50.0%] and, 11-15 years of age [32.8%]. Most injured organs [63.6%] were extremities and most frequent damage caused by the injury was fracture [29.5%]. Almost half of the injuries [44.0%] occurred in and around the school. Development and implementation of systematic surveillance is necessary to identify the epidemiologic characteristics of childhood injuries at national level. Definition of the risk factors and protective factors is a priority of countries to prevent such injuries