RESUMEN
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the effects of workplace violence on sub-health status of nurses and to provide the theoretical basis for preventing the workplace violence in the hospitals and improving the health status of nurses.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 679 nurses were selected by using stratified cluster sampling method. The Chinese version of workplace violence scale (WVS) and sub-health scale were used to measure workplace violence and sub-health status, respectively.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The subjects with middle age (30-45 years) were found to have the highest incidence of physical assault (24.5%) and emotional assault (52.2%) as compared with other subjects (P<0.05). The prevalence (23.6%) of emotional assault of subjects with lowest education levels was significantly lower than that of others (P<0.05). The nurses with work shift were more vulnerable to emotional assault (45.1%) than those without work shift (36.8%)(P<0.05). The prevalence of the workplace violence of nurses in the psychiatric department and emergency department was significantly higher than that of nurses in other departments (P<0.05). The results of multivariate analysis showed that workplace violence was an important risk factor for sub-health status of nurses when other potential confounding factors were taken into account.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The results of present study showed that workplace violence plays an important role in sub-health status of nurses after adjusting other potential confounding factors. It is important to develop the prevention strategies for reducing the incidence of workplace violence and improving the sub-health status of nurses.</p>