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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Leslie Zun, MD, MBA, Department of Emergency Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, 15th and California, Chicago, IL 60608, 7732576957, zunl@sinai.org
Introduction: This study describes the results of an ED based violence prevention program for young victims of interpersonal violence.
Methods: Patients aged 10-24 that were victims of interpersonal violence (excluding child abuse, sexual assault, and domestic violence) were randomly enrolled in the study. The control group was given a list of services and the treatment group received an assessment and case management for six months. Both groups had an initial evaluation and an evaluation repeated at 6 and 12 months after enrollment in the study. The study was IRB approved. The study site was a community, teaching Level 1 trauma center. The success of the intervention was considered reduction of re-victimization, reduction in incarceration and change in attitudes and behaviors related to violence risk.
Results: 188 victims of interpersonal violence meeting the criteria had the initial evaluation completed. By chi-squared analysis, the 96 in the treatment group and 92 in the control group were similar in age, gender and racial composition. The average age was 18.6 years with a range of 11-24 and 82.5% were males. A majority of the youth were African Americans (65.4%) followed by Hispanic (31.4%), Caucasians (1.6%) or other (1.5%). There was a significance in self-reported re-victimization between the treatment and control groups (Chi squared 3.77, p=05).
Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrated a reduction in re-victimization the intervention group. The lack of other changes is due to limitations of study design and difficulty in dealing with high-risk inner city youth.
Learning Objectives:
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.