Holiday effect on injuries sustained by assault victims seen in US emergency departments

Purpose There has been a limited and inconsistent analysis of assault-related injury patterns associated with holidays. We investigated the temporal variation in assault-related injuries presenting to US emergency departments (ED) around holidays. Methods We examined data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System Database between 2005 and 2017 for six categories of assault-related injuries: altercation, sexual assault, robbery, intimate partner violence (IPV), other specified, and unknown. Differences between holiday and non-holiday periods were analyzed for each assault type. Results There was a significant difference in overall assault-related injury visits between holiday and non-holiday periods (p < 0.00001). Of over 21 million assault-related injury visits, 14.9% occurred during holiday periods and 85% during non-holiday periods. The difference between the daily number of assault-related ED visits was also significantly higher during the holiday period than baseline non-holiday period (p < 0.00001). Altercations and IPV were significantly higher than baseline for New Year's Eve (highest), St. Patrick's Day, July 4th, and Labor Day. IPV also remained significantly higher than baseline during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sexual assaults were significantly higher than baseline during the New Year's Eve period but lower than baseline during Christmas and Easter. Conclusions Holidays are associated with increase in several assault-related injuries. The information can help allocate healthcare resources and guide prevention strategies.