Intrafamily Violence and Public Health: professional responsibility to the faces of the representation of dentists

Abstract Intrafamily violence is a social problem that has a great impact on public health because it is a contributing factor in the morbidity and mortality of the population. The objective of this study was to investigate the behavior of dentists in the detection/notification process and the professionals' fears of the violence. This is a cross-sectional and quantitative epidemiological study. A total of 65 dental surgeons from the basic care of 4 small and medium-sized municipalities in the state of Sao Paulo participated in the study, most of them female (61.6%). For the data collection, a semi-structured survey was used, exclusively for the study, and then, through descriptive statistics, the absolute and percentage frequencies were explained in tables and graph. As a result, 41% of the professionals did not have knowledge about the notification process, of which 60% mentioned that they had never suspected/diagnosed violence. Most dentists (72%) have never used the notification form, which can be explained by the fact that 61.6% do not feel responsible for the detection/notification process of violent acts. In addition, the main fear involved in the detection/notification, the "fear of the aggressor", was cited by 50.77%. It is concluded that a large proportion of dentists do not know the detection/notification process because they do not take responsibility for the intervention of this disease. Concerning the main conducts and fear, it was noted that professionals were not prepared from the perspective of the issue given the difficulty of identification/diagnosis of the cases, just as the "fear of the aggressor" influences the non-formalization of violent acts  Keywords: Violence. Public Health. Liability, Legal. Resumo A violencia intrafamiliar e um problema social de grande impacto para a saude publica por se tratar de um fator coadjuvante na morbimortalidade da populacao. O objetivo do estudo foi investigar as condutas dos cirurgioes-dentistas no que tange ao processo deteccao/notificacao e receios dos profissionais as faces dos casos de violencia. Trata-se de um estudo epidemiologico, transversal e quantitativo. Participaram do estudo 65 cirurgioes-dentistas da atencao basica de 4 municipios de pequeno e medio porte do estado de Sao Paulo, sendo a maioria do sexo feminino (61,6%). Para a coleta de dados, utilizou-se um inquerito semiestruturado, elaborado exclusivamente para o estudo, e em seguida, por meio da estatistica descritiva, as frequencias absolutas e percentuais foram explanadas em tabelas e grafico. Como resultado, 41% dos profissionais nao dispunham de conhecimento acerca do processo notificatorio, e dentre esses, 60% mencionaram que nunca suspeitaram/diagnosticaram casos de violencia. Grande parte dos cirurgioes-dentistas (72%) nunca fez uso da ficha de notificacao, o que pode ser explicado pelo fato de que 61,6% nao se sentirem responsaveis pelo processo deteccao/notificacao de atos violentos. Ademais, o principal receio interveniente na deteccao/notificacao, o “medo do agressor”, foi citado por 50,77%. Conclui-se que uma grande parcela dos cirurgioes-dentistas nao conhece o processo deteccao/notificacao pelo fato de nao se responsabilizarem na intervencao desse agravo. Em relacao as principais condutas e receio, notou-se um despreparo dos profissionais sob a perspectiva da tematica dada a dificuldade de identificacao/diagnostico dos casos, assim como o “medo do agressor” influi na nao formalizacao dos atos violentos. Palavras-chave: Violencia. Saude Publica. Responsabilidade Profissional.