Article Figures & Data
Tables
Injured Patients Characteristic All (N = 2,517) No. (%) From Covered Shifts (n = 2,161) No. (%) Community Participants (n = 1,856) No. (%) Note: All percentages are column percentages. Percentages do not total to 100% because of rounding errors. Sex Female 1,085 (43.1) 967 (44.8) 908 (48.9) Male 1,432 (56.9) 1,194 (55.2) 948 (51.1) Age, y 18–20 419 (16.6) 379 (17.5) 201 (10.8) 21–29 716 (28.4) 636 (29.4) 560 (30.2) 30–44 761 (30.2) 658 (30.5) 616 (33.2) 45–64 421 (16.7) 325 (15.0) 329 (17.7) ≥65 200 (7.9) 163 (7.5) 150 (8.1) Level Reported Irritable (n = 2,451) No. (%) Angry (n = 2,452) No. (%) Hostile (n = 2,450) No. (%) Note: All percentages are column percentages. Percentages do not total to 100% because of rounding errors. Not at all 1,673 (68.3) 2,007 (81.9) 2,126 (86.8) A little 357 (14.6) 161 (6.6) 146 (6.0) Moderately 183 (7.5) 97 (4.0) 69 (2.8) Quite a bit 128 (5.2) 79 (3.2) 54 (2.2) Extremely 110 (4.5) 108 (4.4) 55 (2.2) Emotion A Little OR (95% CI) Moderately OR (95% CI) Quite a Bit OR (95% CI) Extremely OR (95% CI) OR = odds ratio; CI = confidence interval. Note: Comparison group was “not at all.” Values are for men and women combined. Odds ratios are from conditional logistic regression models in which the different levels of anger are treated as if each variable were categorical. Case-crossover analyses Irritable 1.1 (0.9–1.4) 1.0 (0.7–1.3) 1.7 (1.2–2.3) 4.2 (2.6–6.9) Angry 1.1 (0.8–1.4) 1.9 (1.3–2.9) 1.8 (1.1–2.7) 7.2 (3.9–13) Hostile 1.3 (1.0–1.9) 2.2 (1.3–3.5) 2.7 (1.5–4.7) 7.9 (3.3–19) Case-control analyses Irritable 0.8 (0.6–1.0) 0.7 (0.5–0.9) 1.1 (0.8–1.6) 1.9 (1.2–3.1) Angry 1.1 (0.8–1.5) 1.6 (1.0–2.4) 2.1 (1.2–3.7) 4.6 (2.6–8.2) Hostile 1.4 (1.0–2.0) 1.0 (0.7–1.7) 2.3 (1.2–4.6) 6.1 (2.4–16)
Additional Files
The Article in Brief
State Anger and the Risk of Injury: a Case-control and Case-crossover Study
Daniel C. Vinson, MD, MSPH , and colleagues
Background Is anger associated with injury? This study looked at the risk of injury during specific episodes of anger (called �state anger�).
What This Study Found Anger greatly increases a person�s chances of injury, especially among men, according to this study of more than 2,500 patients. Based on interviews of patients who had been seriously injured and were seeking care at an emergency department, researchers found that 31.7% reported some degree of irritability just before the injury, 18.1% reported feeling angry, and 13.2% reported feeling hostile. The relationship between anger and injury is stronger in men than women. In addition, risk of injury is higher for greater degrees of anger. For example, the risk is higher for those feeling �quite a bit� or �extremely� angry rather than just �angry.� Anger is much less common among patients with traffic injuries, but in both men and women anger is strongly associated with intentional injuries inflicted by another person.
Implications
- Control of irritability and anger might decrease the risk of injury, especially among men.
