Aggression, violence and threatening behaviour during critical illness

Abstract

Objective

This article aims to quantify prevalence of patient aggression or threatened/actual violence during critical illness.

Design

This is a retrospective cohort study.

Setting

This study was conducted in single adult trauma intensive care unit (ICU).

Participants

Patients aged 18 years or over, admitted between January 2015 and December 2020, who triggered a “Code Grey” response due to aggression or threatened/actual violence.

Main outcome measure

The primary outcome was prevalence of Code Grey events. Secondary outcomes included unadjusted and adjusted (logistic mixed model) effects of patient demographics, diagnoses and severity of illness on Code Grey events.

Results

There were 16175 ICU admissions relating to 14085 patients and 807 Code Grey events involving 379 (2.7%) patients. The observed count of events increased progressively from 2015 (n = 77) to 2020 (n = 204). For patients with a Code Grey, the median count of events was 3 (range 1–33). Independent predictors of at least one ICU Code Grey event included male sex (OR 2.5; 95% CI 1.8 to 3.4), young age (most elevated odds ratio in patients 20–30 years), admission from the emergency department (OR 2.8, 95% CI 2.1 to 3.6) and a trauma diagnosis (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.1 to 1.9). Code Grey patients had longer admissions with a reduced risk of death.

Conclusions

The prevalence of Code Grey events in ICU appears to be increasing. Patients may have repeated events. Younger male patients admitted to ICU via the emergency department with a trauma or medical diagnosis are at greatest risk of a Code Grey event.