Yifu Zhao,1 Aichen Zhang,2 Wen Zhang,3 Long Sun4,5 

1Institute of Health Data Science, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, People’s Republic of China; 2Operating Room, Weihai Municipal Hospital, Weihai, Shandong, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Psychiatry, Binzhou People Hospital, Binzhou, Shandong, People’s Republic of China; 4Centre for Health Management and Policy Research, School of Public Health, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, People’s Republic of China; 5NHC Key Laboratory of Health Economics and Policy Research (Shandong University), Jinan, Shandong, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Long Sun, Centre for Health Management and Policy Research, School of Public Health, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, 44 Wenhuaxi Road, Jinan, Shandong, 250012, People’s Republic of China, Email sunlong@sdu.edu.cn

Purpose: Workplace violence (WPV) against healthcare workers is a significant public health issue in China and globally. Although the effort–reward imbalance theory claimed that work rewards may moderate the relationship between work effort and WPV, the quantitative evidence is limited. This study aimed to examine if work reward could moderate the associations between work effort and WPV against medical staff based on the effort–reward imbalance theory.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, which was conducted in 12 hospitals in Shandong, China. Data collected from 3426 medical staff were analyzed in this study. Work effort was evaluated by working hours and night shift work times per month (NSWM), and work reward was evaluated by monthly income and perceived social status. WPV, occupational characteristics, physical disease, and social-demographic variables were also evaluated in this study.
Results: There were 1788 (52.2%) medical staff, who reported the experience of workplace violence. Working hours, NSWM, and perceived social status were associated with WPV (all p< 0.001). Monthly income could moderate the associations between monthly income and WPV or verbal violence (p< 0.05), and perceived social status could moderate the associations between NSWM and WPV (p< 0.001).
Conclusion: Monthly income could moderate the associations between monthly income and WPV (verbal violence), and perceived social status could moderate the associations between NSWM and WPV, which could be explained by the effort–reward imbalance model. These findings also can be translated into practices to control WPV against medical staff.

Keywords: workplace violence, working hours, shift work times, income, perceived social status, medical staff