NCJ Number
219677
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 31 Issue: 6 Dated: June 2007 Pages: 623-629
Date Published
June 2007
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This study sought to determine how often and for what reasons a hospital-based multidisciplinary child abuse team found reports of alleged child abuse unsubstantiated in young children with fractures.
Abstract
Results revealed that during the study period, the hospital-based child abuse team received 99 consultations regarding alleged or suspected child abuse. The team reported 92 (93 percent) of the children as possible victims of child abuse and declined to report 7 (7 percent) others. The median age at presentation for children who were reported as possible victims was 4.2 months compared with 3.0 months for children who were not reported. The average number of fractures in the reported group was 2.9 compared with 3.4 fractures in the not reported group. Factors that contributed to cases not being referred for possible child abuse were: (1) a trauma history consistent with the fracture; (2) a diagnoses of bone fragility; and (3) iatrogenic fracture. The authors conclude that the multidisciplinary hospital-based child protection team may have prevented the unnecessary investigation and possible out-of-home placement of several child fracture cases. The research involved reviewing the medical records of all infants younger than 12 months of age who had presented with at least 1 fracture and who had been evaluated by the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) multidisciplinary child abuse team from January 2001 through July 2003. Data were analyzed using the Student’s t test. Table, references