| Abstrakt: |
Background: Child abuse is a serious threat to the physical and psychosocial well-being of the pediatric population. Many abused children who visit hospitals may not be recognized as child abuse victims due to non-specificity of injury complaints. Purpose: This study compared the injury and medical service utilization profiles of child abuse victims and their non-abused (accidental injury) peers in the hospital. Methods: This research analyzed data on "inpatient expenditures by admissions" and "registry for contracted medical facilities" in the 2009 National Health Insurance (NHI) database using SPSS 18.0 software. We defined child abuse cases as ICD-9-CM N-code 995.5x and E-code E967.X and controls as E800-E949. Results: Of the 20,720 physical injury cases identified, 87 (0.42%) were identified as child abuse. Coded child abuse victims had a significantly lower mean age than accidental trauma patients (4.8yrs vs. 11.9yrs) and were more likely to come from low-income households (10.3% vs. 3.7%). Coded child abuse victims were also more likely to suffer intracranial injury (33.3% vs. 15.6%) and poisoning (5.7% vs. 1.9%), have more than 2 injury sites (59.8% vs. 40.3%), stay in the hospital longer (8.8 days vs. 4.9 days), and have higher average medical expenditures (NTD79,455.7 vs. NTD36,344.9). Predictors of coded child abuse included an age below 3 years, coming from a low-income household, intracranial injury, poisoning, more than 2 injury sites and relatively high medical expenditures. Conclusion: This study highlights several indicators of child abuse observable during medical visits. Medical professionals may use these to detect abuse victims and potentially protect patients from farther abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
