Abstract:
Background: Injuries following assaults cover a wide range of physical harm, from little
bumps to wounds that could be fatal. Although the injuries following assaults are a serious
health and economic burden to our country, the research data on the pattern of assaults and its
physical and psychological effects is scarce.
Objectives: To study the pattern of assaults and their physical and psychological effects among
assault victims admitted to National Hospital, Galle
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Emergency Trauma Casualty
ward and all surgical wards in National Hospital, Galle. Data were collected during one month
using a self-developed interviewer-administered questionnaire. Pre-test was conducted with a
separate sample (n=10) in the same setting and the questionnaire was improved according to
experts’ comments. Assault victims were recruited using consecutive sampling. Descriptive
statistics and Chi-square test were used to analyse the data.
Results: A total number of 122 cases were recruited. Of the total, 54.92% of patients has
significant psychological effects after injuries following assaults. Majority of the assaults have
occurred in day time (63.1%) and 30.0% have occurred at home. Most of the perpetrators
(29.51%) were friends and working mates followed by relatives (27.05%). The comments injury
type was scratches (27.53%) and the weapon type was blunt weapons (60.81%), while 38.33%
of assaults happened without weapons. No significant associations were found among socio-
demographic characteristics and physical effect, psychological effect. A strong significant
association was detected among physical effect and the psychological effect (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Physical and psychological effects of injuries following assaults are not
significantly influenced by the sociodemographic characteristics of the victims. However, the
severity of the psychological effects is significantly associated with the severity of the physical
effects experienced by the victims.
