The patient who presented to the Emergency Department because of domestic violence

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: It is important for the medical providers who work in the emergency department to ave the adequate knowledge about the nature and the ways to deal with the patients who suffer from domestic violence because in our country the management of them is primarily performed at the emergency centers. The purpose of this study is to provide basic data about the domestic violence and to help in developing the education and management model for the medical providers. METHODS: The authors retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 198 patients who visited the emergency center of Chunchon Sacred Heart Hospital from July 1997 to August 1998. RESULTS: The violence against the spouses was highest(108 cases:54.5%) and most of the victims were female(92%) in those cases. The violence against children younger than age 3 was 30%. The majority of the victims were arrived around noon(54.5%) and among them, the aged and children were more concentrated. The degree of injury was severer than that of the victims of general violence. CONCLUSION: In this study the violence against the spouses was the highest in incidence and against the aged was the lowest. The violence rate against children younger than age 3 was lower than that of other comparable studies. The incidence of sexual violence was significantly lower than that of other countries. The degree of injury was generally severer than that of general violence patients. But these result should be carefully criticized and accepted because up to now the system for the detection and management for them is not well established.