Of premature demise - a follow-up study of young men exposed to violence in Sweden

• Introduction & Purpose: The discourse of violence has largely focused on female victims of male violence, and partly ignored male victims. More men than women die of homicide and are exposed to non-fatal violence. Being physically assaulted is a traumatic experience with serious and long-lasting consequences. It is primarily young men aged 16-24 who suffer from violence. It can be difficult for these men to be in the role of victims, and this can be reinforced by norms that say masculinity stands for power and strength while the role of crime victims is rather an expression of weakness. The purpose of the study are to analyze mortality patterns among men aged 18-24 who have been exposed to violence leading to hospital care.Methods: Register data including all men in Sweden 18-24 years that received at least one night of hospital care after injury from another person in 1992-2005. For each hospitalized man, nine age-matched men were randomly selected from the population each year. Data is available from the year before hospitalization/inclusion and 10 years after (or to 2006 when follow-up ends).Results: Analyses are based on Cox regressions, controlled for age, days of inpatient care from violence, days of hospital care for other reasons, degree of urbanization, country of birth, presence of preschool children, gainfully employed/ not, financial assistance/not, education, and income. Compared to men from the population, exposed men had >3 times higher risk (HR=3.34) for all-cause mortality, >4 times higher risk (HR=4.16) to die from suicide, and about 20 times higher risk (HR=19.63) to die from violence. The difference between exposed and non-exposed men in all-cause mortality, decrease significantly over the 10-year follow-up from HR 4.48 to 2.66, in mortality from violence from HR 45.23 to 2.06. Regarding mortality from violence, the difference between exposed and non-exposed men was not significant after 10 years. The risk difference to die from suicide remained stable over the follow-up period.Conclusions: Paying attention to the long-term consequences from violence, there are also opportunities to change the situation and allow for alternative development for men who have been abused. This is especially important when it comes to the risk for suicide. 

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

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