Pattern of oral-maxillofacial trauma from violence against women and its associated factors

Background/Aim Violence against women is a global public health problem. The aim of this study was to characterize the profile of women victims of violence and identify factors associated with maxillofacial injuries. Material and Methods A cross-sectional study was performed based on an evaluation of 884 medico-legal and social records of women victims of physical aggression treated at the Center of Forensic Medicine and Dentistry in Brazil. The variables investigated were related to the socio-demographic characteristics of victims, circumstances of aggressions, and patterns of trauma. Descriptive and multivariate statistics using Decision Tree analysis by the Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detector algorithm (CHAID), as well as univariate and multivariate Poisson regression analyses were performed. Results The mean age of victims was 29.38 (SD = 12.55 years). Based on Decision Tree, the profile of violence against women can be explained by the aggressor's gender (p < 0.001) and sociodemographic characteristics of victims, such as marital status (p = 0.001), place of residence (p = 0.019), and educational level (p = 0.014). The occurrence of maxillofacial trauma was 46.4%. Based on the final Poisson regression model, women living in suburban areas were more likely to suffer maxillofacial trauma (PR = 1.752; CI 95% = 1.153-2.662; p = 0.009) compared to those living in rural areas. Moreover, aggression using a weapon resulted in a lower occurrence of maxillofacial trauma (PR = 0.476; CI 95% = 0.284-0.799; p = 0.005) compared to cases of aggression using physical force. Conclusions The prevalence of oral-maxillofacial trauma was high, and the associated factors were place of residence and mechanism of aggression. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.