The Emergency Department, Princess Royal Hospital, Telford, Shropshire TF1 6TF, UK.
Emerg Med J. 2010 Jan;27(1):26-8. doi: 10.1136/emj.2008.069468.
Frequency of emergency department (ED) attendance has long been thought to be a risk factor for child abuse. The aim of this study was to test this assumption by comparing the ED attendances of at-risk children (before being placed on a child protection register) with the attendances of an age-matched control group (before an index attendance) Method: A group of 220 children (aged 0-12 years inclusive) were identified from the two child protection registers in the Shropshire area in 2006. The ED attendances of these children in the 2 years before registration were identified using the computer records of the two local EDs. A control group of 150 children for each year of age (0-12 years inclusive) was then identified from ED attendances between October and December 2006. The attendances of these children in the 2 years before this index attendance were obtained. The data for these two groups of children were then compared.
The at-risk children did not attend the EDs more frequently than did the children in the control group.
The identification of children who attend EDs frequently may be useful for other reasons but is unlikely to be an effective way to detect child abuse.
急诊部（ED）就诊的频率长期以来一直被认为是儿童虐待的一个风险因素。本研究的目的是通过比较有风险的儿童（在被登记到儿童保护登记册之前）与年龄匹配的对照组（在就诊之前）的就诊次数来检验这一假设。
2006 年，从什罗普郡的两个儿童保护登记册中确定了 220 名儿童（年龄在 0-12 岁之间）。使用当地两家 ED 的计算机记录，确定了这些儿童在登记前两年内的 ED 就诊次数。然后，从 2006 年 10 月至 12 月的 ED 就诊中为每个年龄组（0-12 岁）确定了 150 名对照儿童。获得了这些儿童在本次就诊前两年的就诊次数。然后比较了这两组儿童的数据。
有风险的儿童并没有比对照组的儿童更频繁地到 ED 就诊。
识别经常到 ED 就诊的儿童可能对其他原因有用，但不太可能成为发现儿童虐待的有效方法。
