International Research Journal of Public and Environmental Health Vol.7 (2),pp. 21-29, March-April 2020 Available online at https://www.journalissues.org/IRJPEH/ https://doi.org/10.15739/irjpeh.20.004 Copyright © 2020 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article ISSN 2360-8803 Original Research Article Trends of interpersonal physical violence and predictors for injury severity, among adult populations in Qena Egypt: An incidence case study Received 13 December, 2019 Revised 18 February, 2020 Accepted 27 February, 2020 Published 21 March, 2020 Sameh S. Zaytoun 1 , Raouf M. Afifi 2 *, Ashraf E. Saad, 3 Majed Al Harthi, 4 and Faris S. Almalki 5 1 Community Medicine and Public Health Department, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt 2 Community Health Research Dept., International Management- Health Services, Indianapolis, USA 3 Department of Statistics and Information, Ministry of Health, Khartoum, Sudan 4 Academic Affairs, King Abdulaziz Specialist Hospital, Taif, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 5 Medical Department, King Faisal Hospital, Taif, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Study focuses on the incidence, severity and correlates of interpersonal physical violence (IPV) injuries among adult in Qena residents, Upper Egypt. Incident cases of IPV victimization attending emergency service of Qena University Hospital (QUH), between July 2016-December 2018, were examined. Among 523 IPV cases studied, those 18-29 years old accounted 273 (52.2%); male 483(92.3%), single 351(67.1%); and 215(41.1%) were employed. Only 34/374(9.1%) had mental illness and 70/385(18.2%) used substance. Most [267(51.0%)] injuries were induced by hand, stick [138(26.4%)] or knife [72(13.7%), p<0.001]. Assaults were triggered either over financial matters [80(15.3%)], revenge [62(11.9%)], in a street fight/motor vehicle accidents [59(11.3%)], at the workplace [50(9.6%)] or under alcohol intoxication [45(8.6%)]. Subjects <29 sustained severer injuries than older peers [126/273(46.2%), p<0.001]. Revenge victimization also associated severer injury more frequently [33/62(53.2%), p=0.12]. Psychiatrically-ill subjects sustained severe injuries more frequently than milder injuries [19/34(55.9%), p = 0.025]. Knife-induced injuries were also severer than other injury methods [43/72(60.0%), p<0.001]. Physical assault may still stand as an important behavioral phenomenon in Qena, which needs investment in prevention. Key words: Physical violence, interpersonal, predictors, Qena, Egypt *Corresponding Author Email: raoufafifi@hotmail.com INTRODUCTION Physical violence involves offensive act or an instance with an actual touching or other assaults upon another. With a hostile assault, there might be an intention to inflect an unlawful threat or do bodily injury to another (WHO, 2002). Violent assaults take place in a myriad of population settings, e.g., street, workplace, educational premises, sport yards, domestically, and elsewhere. For decades, reports were showing escalating violence statistics, e.g., each year violent assault results in over 1.6 million deaths, over 90% of which occur in low- and middle-income countries (WHO, 2002). In USA, approximately 12 out of every 1000 people are subject to criminal assault, accounting around 17,250 fatal assaults in 2016.(BJS, 2011; FBI, 2016). In 2012, there were 116,105 recorded violence victims in five major Australian districts, (ABS, 2013) equating to a victimization rate of 969/ 100,000 populations. This reflects a trend whereas physical assault stands as the foremost type of violent crime (homicide, physical assault, sexual assault and robbery).(ABS, 2014). Physical assault occurs when “an individual or a group