Birmingham & Solihull NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, Birmingham B4 6AR, UK.
School of Nursing, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jul 5;19(13):8213. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19138213.
Effective child protection systems and processes require reliable and accurate data. The aim of this study was to determine what data could be extracted from hospital records in a single site that reflected a child's journey from admission with suspected abuse to the decisions regarding substantiation made by the multidisciplinary child protection team. A retrospective study of the case records of 452 children referred to a major UK children's tertiary centre for suspected child maltreatment was undertaken. Child maltreatment was substantiated in 65% of referred cases, with the majority of referrals coming from children living in the most deprived neighbourhoods in the country. Domestic violence and abuse and the child's previous involvement with statutory bodies were associated with case substantiation. Physical abuse predominated, with soft tissue injuries, including dog bites and burns, most frequent. Burns were related almost exclusively to supervisory neglect. There were also cases of medical neglect. Emotional abuse was associated with exposure to domestic violence and abuse and to self-harm. The strengths and limitations for single-centre data systems were explored, concluding with a recommendation to establish an agreed national and international minimum data set to protect children from maltreatment.
有效的儿童保护系统和流程需要可靠和准确的数据。本研究旨在确定从疑似虐待儿童入院到多学科儿童保护小组做出实质性认定决定的过程中，从单个地点的医院记录中可以提取哪些数据。对英国一家主要儿童医院的 452 名疑似虐待儿童的病例记录进行了回顾性研究。在被转介的病例中，65%的病例被认定为虐待儿童，大多数转介来自该国最贫困地区的儿童。家庭暴力和虐待以及儿童以前与法定机构的接触与案件的实质性认定有关。身体虐待占主导地位，软组织损伤（包括狗咬伤和烧伤）最为常见。烧伤几乎完全与监督疏忽有关。也有医疗忽视的案例。情绪虐待与家庭暴力和虐待以及自残有关。还探讨了单中心数据系统的优势和局限性，并建议建立一个国际公认的最低数据标准，以保护儿童免受虐待。
