Temporal trends in physical violence, gender differences and spatial vulnerability of the location of victim's residences

This study performed an ecological-level longitudinal analysis, examining violence rates over 4 years. Cases of 4795 victims of physical aggression attended at a Center of Legal Medicine were investigated. Trend analysis was used to evaluate the data, with the creation of polynomial regression models (p < 0.05). Violence rates showed significant temporal variations according to sociodemographic characteristics of victims (p < 0.05) and the circumstances of aggressions (p < 0.05). Moreover, there was a significant increase in violence rate in the North (R2 = 16.1%; p = 0.019) and South (R2 = 18.4%; p = 0.010), whereas the rural zone (R2 = 10.1%; p = 0.028) presented a decrease. The findings highlight the need for protection policies that address spatial-temporal aspects.
Source: Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology - Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research