Introduction:
Since 2014 the “codice rosa” care path, formalized throughout the regional network in 2016, has been active in the University Hospital of Pisa (A.O.U.P.). Emergency Department (ED) personnel are trained on how to recognize the signs of violence suffered, whether declared or not, to place the victim within a multidisciplinary and territorial assistance network. The aim of our study is to analyze the number of accesses with “codice rosa” in ED before and during the pandemic, to identify the characteristics and the trend of accesses.

Materials and methods:
A retrospective study was carried out from 2018 to 2021 by analyzing data from the “codice rosa” medical records stored in a dedicated archive at the Organizzazione dei Servizi Ospedalieri (UO OSO) and by cross-checking using the application in use in the ED. Accesses to ED by “codice rosa” were collected by: age range, gender, citizenship, type of violence and period (pre-pandemic=2018-19 and pandemic=2020-21). The processing was carried out using Excel®.

Results:
A total of 620 accesses were reported during the study period. 289 in the pre-pandemic and 311 in the pandemic period. Females were the most affected in both periods (n=208,72%,2018-19; n=265,80%,2020-21). During the pandemic period the percentage of minors decreased slightly (from 9.5% to 7.5%); while the percentage of males increased (from 15.5% to 20%) as for the foreigners (from 28.5% to 33.5%). The type of violence most frequently recorded in both periods was ill-treatment.

Conclusions:
The analysis highlights how accesses with “codice rosa” have been steadily increasing over the years with a slight increase during the pandemic. Victims of abuse are generally adults, females and Italians. The analysis carried out can provide useful tools for identifying the most fragile categories and the trend of the phenomenon, in order to plan specific interventions for the prevention of violence.