Emergency Department, Harbor-UCLA, United States.
Children's Health of Orange County, Orange, CA, United States.
Child Abuse Negl. 2021 Jun;116(Pt 2):104990. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.104990. Epub 2021 Mar 8.
There is widespread concern that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the incidence of child maltreatment. However, reports in the scientific literature documenting rates of child maltreatment during this period are scarce. This study was designed to explore whether the incidence of child maltreatment among patients presenting to a pediatric emergency department has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We conducted a retrospective review of patients of all ages presenting to a pediatric Emergency Department trauma center, who also had a child abuse report filing or a sentinel injury diagnosis related to their index visit. All such patients who presented to this institution from March through July of 2017 through 2020 were included in the study.
Analysis demonstrated an increase in the incidence of child maltreatment in May and June of 2020 and that there was an overall shift in distribution of types of child maltreatment during the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a significant increase in the proportion of emotional/psychological abuse (2.52 % before the pandemic to 7.00 % during the pandemic, p ≤ 0.0001) and non-medical neglect (31.5%-40.0%, p ≤ 0.0001).
We observed an increase in specific types of child maltreatment during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings highlight the need for increased attention to children at risk for child abuse and neglect.
人们普遍担心 COVID-19 大流行增加了儿童虐待的发生率。然而，科学文献中记录这一时期儿童虐待率的报告却很少。本研究旨在探讨在 COVID-19 大流行期间，到儿科急诊就诊的患者中儿童虐待的发生率是否增加。
我们对所有年龄段的到儿科急诊创伤中心就诊的患者进行了回顾性研究，这些患者同时有儿童虐待报告备案或与就诊相关的哨兵伤害诊断。在本机构，所有于 2017 年 3 月至 7 月至 2020 年期间出现的患者均纳入研究。
分析表明，2020 年 5 月和 6 月儿童虐待的发生率增加，并且 COVID-19 大流行期间儿童虐待类型的分布总体发生了变化。情感/心理虐待的比例显著增加（大流行前为 2.52%，大流行期间为 7.00%，p ≤ 0.0001），非医疗忽视的比例也增加（31.5%-40.0%，p ≤ 0.0001）。
我们观察到 COVID-19 大流行期间特定类型的儿童虐待有所增加。这些发现强调了需要更加关注有儿童虐待和忽视风险的儿童。
