Kaur Harsimran, Vinod K S, Singh Harpreet, Arya Lavina, Verma Prateek, Singh Baldeep
Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Kothiwal Dental College and Research Centre, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, India.
Triveni College of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, India.
J Forensic Dent Sci. 2017 Jan-Apr;9(1):24-30. doi: 10.4103/jfo.jfds_6_15.
Child abuse continues to be a social menace causing both physical and emotional trauma to benevolent children. Census has shown that nearly 50-75% of child abuse include trauma to mouth, face, and head. Thus, dental professionals are in a strategic position to identify physical and emotional manifestations of abuse.
A cross-sectional survey was conducted to assess knowledge and attitude of dental professionals on the exigent issue of child abuse.
With prior consent, a 20-question survey including both multiple choice and dichotomous (yes/no) questions was mailed to 120 state-registered general dentists and the data collected were subjected to statistical analysis.
The overall response rate to the questionnaires was 97%. Lack of knowledge about dentist role in reporting child abuse accounted to 55% in the reasons for hesitancy to report. Pearson's Chi-square test did not show any significant difference between male and female regarding the reason for hesitancy to report and legal obligation of dentists.
Although respondent dentists were aware of the diagnosis of child abuse, they were hesitant and unaware of the appropriate authority to report.
Increased instruction in the areas of recognition and reporting of child abuse and neglect should be emphasized.
虐待儿童仍然是一种社会威胁，给无辜的儿童带来身体和情感创伤。人口普查显示，近50%-75%的虐待儿童情况包括口腔、面部和头部创伤。因此，牙科专业人员处于识别虐待行为的身体和情感表现的战略位置。
进行一项横断面调查，以评估牙科专业人员对虐待儿童这一紧迫问题的知识和态度。
在获得事先同意后，向120名州注册普通牙医邮寄了一份包含20个问题的调查问卷，其中包括多项选择题和二分法（是/否）问题，并对收集到的数据进行统计分析。
问卷的总体回复率为97%。在犹豫报告的原因中，55%是对牙医在报告虐待儿童方面的作用缺乏了解。在犹豫报告的原因和牙医的法律义务方面，Pearson卡方检验未显示男性和女性之间有任何显著差异。
尽管参与调查的牙医了解虐待儿童的诊断，但他们犹豫不决，并且不知道向哪个合适的机构报告。
应加强在识别和报告虐待及忽视儿童方面的指导。
