In a single year, according to a study, more than 4,500 children in the U.S. were hospitalized because of child abuse, and 300 died of their injuries.
Several measures have been used to track the national occurrence of child abuse, including data from Child Protective Services. But until now none quantified the severity of the abuse or whether the child was hospitalized as a result, according to the researchers.
Led by John M. Leventhal, MD, professor of pediatrics and medical director of the Child Abuse and Child Abuse Prevention Programs at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital, researchers used the 2006 Kids' Inpatient Database to estimate the incidence of hospitalizations from serious physical abuse among children younger than 18. KID was prepared by the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, part of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
They found 4,569 children were hospitalized in the U.S. in 2006 because of serious abuse, with 300 dying. Children in their first year of life were at highest risk of being hospitalized, at a rate of 58.2 per 100,000 children in the age group.
The researchers defined cases of serious abuse as any child admitted to the hospital with an injury that was coded as abuse. Such cases included a 3-month-old with multiple bruises due to abuse and a 3-month-old with life-threatening abusive head trauma. The definition did not include children admitted with suspicious injuries who were eventually diagnosed as having non-abusive injuries.
"These numbers are higher than the rate of sudden infant death syndrome (about 50 per 100,000 births), which is alarming," Leventhal said in a news release.
Leventhal also noted that children covered by Medicaid had rates of serious abuse about six times higher than those not on Medicaid. "This speaks to the importance of poverty as a risk factor for serious abuse," he said.
The estimated national cost for the hospitalizations due to serious abusive injuries was $73.8 million. The findings are scheduled for publication in the March 2012 issue of Pediatrics. To read a study summary and access the study via subscription, visit http://bit.ly/z0aDD3.
Several measures have been used to track the national occurrence of child abuse, including data from Child Protective Services. But until now none quantified the severity of the abuse or whether the child was hospitalized as a result, according to the researchers.
Led by John M. Leventhal, MD, professor of pediatrics and medical director of the Child Abuse and Child Abuse Prevention Programs at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital, researchers used the 2006 Kids' Inpatient Database to estimate the incidence of hospitalizations from serious physical abuse among children younger than 18. KID was prepared by the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, part of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
They found 4,569 children were hospitalized in the U.S. in 2006 because of serious abuse, with 300 dying. Children in their first year of life were at highest risk of being hospitalized, at a rate of 58.2 per 100,000 children in the age group.
The researchers defined cases of serious abuse as any child admitted to the hospital with an injury that was coded as abuse. Such cases included a 3-month-old with multiple bruises due to abuse and a 3-month-old with life-threatening abusive head trauma. The definition did not include children admitted with suspicious injuries who were eventually diagnosed as having non-abusive injuries.
"These numbers are higher than the rate of sudden infant death syndrome (about 50 per 100,000 births), which is alarming," Leventhal said in a news release.
Leventhal also noted that children covered by Medicaid had rates of serious abuse about six times higher than those not on Medicaid. "This speaks to the importance of poverty as a risk factor for serious abuse," he said.
The estimated national cost for the hospitalizations due to serious abusive injuries was $73.8 million. The findings are scheduled for publication in the March 2012 issue of Pediatrics. To read a study summary and access the study via subscription, visit http://bit.ly/z0aDD3.
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