This study explores both epidemiological and spatial characteristics of domestic and community interpersonal violence. We evaluated three years of violent trauma data in the medium-sized city of Campina Grande in North-Eastern Brazil. 3559 medical and police records were analysed and 2563 cases were included to identify socioeconomic and geographic patterns. The associations between sociodemographic, temporal, and incident characteristics and domestic violence were evaluated using logistic regression. Using Geographical Information Systems (GIS), we mapped victims’ household addresses to identify spatial patterns. We observed a higher incidence of domestic violence among female, divorced, or co-habitant persons when the violent event was perpetrated by males. There was only a minor chance of occurrence of domestic violence involving firearms. 8 out of 10 victims of domestic violence were women and the female/male ratio was 3.3 times greater than that of community violence (violence not occurring in the home). Unmarried couples were twice as likely to have a victim in the family unit (OR = 2.03), compared to married couples. Seven geographical hotspots were identified. The greatest density of hotspots was found in the East side of the study area and was spatially coincident with the lowest average family income. Aggressor sex, marital status, and mechanism of injury were most associated with domestic violence, and low-income neighbourhoods were coincident with both domestic and non-domestic violence hotspots. These results provide further evidence that economic poverty may play a significant role in interpersonal, and particularly domestic violence.

RESUMO: Objetivo: Descrever o perfil da violência contra mulheres em diferentes ciclos de vida, de acordo com as características sociodemográficas das vítimas e dos agressores. Métodos: Estudo transversal e exploratório realizado com base em 1.388 registros de ocorrências, durante período de quatro anos, em uma região metropolitana do Nordeste do Brasil. A variável dependente foi o tipo de agressão sofrido pelas vítimas. As variáveis independentes foram as características sociodemográficas das vítimas e dos agressores. A análise estatística incluiu o teste χ2 (p < 0,05) e a análise de árvore de decisão, por meio do algoritmo Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detector (CHAID). Resultados: Os casos de agressão física (n = 644) foram os mais comuns, seguidos de ameaça (n = 415) e agressão verbal (n = 285). Os perfis da violência puderam ser explicados pela relação entre vítimas e agressores (p < 0,001) e faixa etária das vítimas (p = 0,026 em Nó 1; p = 0,019 em Nó 3). Conclusão: Foi observado que mulheres em diferentes fases da vida apresentam mais exposição a diferentes tipos de violência.

Objective: To describe the profile of patients with facial trauma admitted in a hospital located in a metropolitan area of Northeast Brazil. Methods: A cross-sectional and exploratory study was performed. A total of 244 cases were in agreement with the eligibility criteria. The variables include the sociodemographic characteristics of patients, etiology, type of trauma, treatment modalities, length of stay in a hospital and quarter of care. Descriptive statistics and Cluster Analysis were performed. Results: The average age of patients was 31.16 years (SD = 15.17 years) and average hospitalization was 6.32 days (SD = 7.75 days). It was verified the automatic formation of four clusters with different profiles of patients. The variables which most contributed to the external differentiation between clusters were: length of stay in a hospital (p <0.001), etiology (p <0.001), type of facial trauma (p <0.001), presence of associated trauma (p <0.001), treatment modalities (p <0.001) and quarter of care (p <0.001). Conclusion: The most of patients were men, victims of traffic accidents, which suffered fracture of zygomatic complex and underwent surgery. Level of Evidence III, Retrospective Study.