Child Abuse Hospitalizations

A study published this week in the American journal Paediatrics has a look at the issue of children who are abused and end up in hospital. This might be seen as a the more probably serious end of the abuse spectrum, although as a a clinician I do see families where they have abused children and avoided getting the child treated. The study did not look at children with suspicious injuries, only those who were coded as abused.

As in most studies of child abuse, it is the youngest children at highest risk. In this case, children under a year were seen as most vulnerable.  Science Daily notes that the study concluded:

They found 4,569 children were hospitalized in the U.S. in 2006 due to serious abuse; 300 of these children died. Children in their first year of life were at highest risk, of being hospitalized, making up 58.2 per 100,000 children in this age group.

The study found the incidence rate to be higher than Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. They also found that there was a correlation between this physical abuse and poverty, although one must bear in mind that the poor have fewer options when it comes to accessing medical services. Thus, that may have brought them more to light.

This study is valuable in that it helps us to see the incidence rate but also a way to think about the rate in comparison to other serious disorders that affect children.

The study will be published in the March 2012 issue of Paediatrics.