Situation and influencing factors of interpersonal trust and association of interpersonal trust with patient and visitor perpetrated violence in hospital among medical workers

  Objective  To investigate the situation and influencing factors of general interpersonal trust and the correlation between interpersonal trust and type II (patient/visitor-on-worker) violence in hospital among medical workers for developing countermeasures for reducing type II violence in hospital and easing conflicts between physicians and patients.

  Methods  With stratified multistage random sampling, we conducted a self-administered questionnaire survey among 3 450 medical professionals in 12 hospitals at municipal or county level in 3 cities of Shandong province during November 2018. A general questionnaire and Interpersonal Trust Scale (ITS) were used in the survey. Descriptive statistics and correlation regression analysis were performed on the data collected.

  Results  For the 3 426 professionals with valid response, the ITS score was 76.02 ± 8.873 and 61.4% (2 104) of the participants were with the ITS score of ≥ 75, indicating a higher level of interpersonal trust. The participants’ ITS scores differed significantly by gender, type of work, department, education, and working years (P < 0.05 for all). The ITS score was positively correlated with the experience of type II violence in hospital among the participants (r = 0.13, P < 0.05).

  Conclusion  Targeted measures should be implemented to protect medical workers from type II violence in hospitals.