Analysis of violence-related ambulance call-outs in the North West of England to explore the impact of calendar events, public holidays, and COVID-19 restrictions

Davies, N, Quigg, Z ORCID: 0000-0002-7212-5852, Germain, J ORCID: 0000-0002-9890-3798, Reed, H, Woollacott, J, Whitfield, M ORCID: 0000-0001-8419-1198 and Bellis, MA ORCID: 0000-0001-6980-1963 (2025) Analysis of violence-related ambulance call-outs in the North West of England to explore the impact of calendar events, public holidays, and COVID-19 restrictions. Journal of Public Health Germany. pp. 1-7. ISSN 2198-1833

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Abstract

Objective: Healthcare data can provide key insights into the nature, extent, and trends in violence; however, few studies have analysed ambulance call-out data. We analysed ambulance call-out data to examine the extent of violence-related call outs, and how trends are influenced by calendar events (e.g. weekends, public holidays) and COVID-19 restrictions. Methods: Secondary data analysis of assault call-outs (N = 52,052) over a 6-year period (2018/19–2023/24) across a region of the United Kingdom. Generalised linear models analysed changes by weekend, holidays, and COVID-19 restrictions. Results: Assaults were higher on weekends, bank holidays, and during the Christmas/New Year period. Assaults were particularly higher on New Year’s Eve [incident rate ratio (IRR) = 2.65 (95% CI = 2.38, 2.95), p <.001]. Celebration days without public holidays were not generally associated with increased violence, apart from Halloween and Valentine’s Day. Assaults were generally higher during summer months, peaking in August [IRR=1.43 (95% CI = 1.37, 1.50), p <.001]. Assaults were lower during national COVID-19 restrictions, and higher during local-level COVID-19 restrictions. Conclusions: Ambulance call-out data provides useful information on the extent and nature of violence across the calendar year and other significant events such as COVID-19 restrictions. Ambulance data shows similarities with other data sources (e.g. police and healthcare), with increases on weekends and public holidays. There was some evidence that violence decreased during national COVID-19 restrictions and increased during local-level restrictions. Further work is needed to encourage data sharing between health, police, and wider partners to inform violence prevention.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	4203 Health Services and Systems; 4206 Public Health; 42 Health Sciences; Emerging Infectious Diseases; Coronaviruses; Infectious Diseases; 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions; 1117 Public Health and Health Services; Public Health; 4203 Health services and systems; 4206 Public health
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Divisions:	Public and Allied Health
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date of acceptance:	17 July 2025
Date of first compliant Open Access:	13 October 2025
Date Deposited:	13 Oct 2025 15:08
Last Modified:	13 Oct 2025 16:15
DOI or ID number:	10.1007/s10389-025-02580-4
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/27324

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