The Comparative Study of Domestic Violence among Patients in One Stop Crisis Center (OSCC) Before and During COVID-19 Pandemic, Lampang Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Due to lockdown measurement as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, people were forced to self-quarantine at home for a long time which increased stress level among people. Furthermore, self-quarantine also increased a longer periods of time that victims and abusers were together. Therefore, the risk of domestic violence had increased. However, there is lack of information about domestic violence during COVID-19 pandemic in Lampang province. Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the type of domestic violences and emergency level in patients of OSCC, Lampang hospital before and during COVID-19 pandemic.  Method: A descriptive study was conducted using medical records from OSCC at Lampang hospital before and during COVID-19 pandemic. Results: A total number of 747 domestic violence cases were identified with 389 cases before COVID-19 and 358 cases during COVID-19. Most of the cases were female both before and during COVID-19 (87.7% and 82.1%). Physical violence was found to be the most common type of domestic violences with 76.6% before COVID-19 and 81% during COVID-19. The emergency level of the cases which divided by first three level of triage (level I – III) during COVID-19 (63.7%) was higher than before COVID-19 (45.2%). Conclusion: The study found that although there were fewer domestic violence cases during COVID-19 than the time before COVID-19, but the emergency level of the cases was significantly higher.