Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Gødstrup Hospital, Hospitalsparken 15, 7400 Herning, Denmark.
Research Unit for General Practice, Fyrkildevej 7, 9220 Aalborg, Aalborg University, Denmark.
Child Abuse Negl. 2023 May;139:106132. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106132. Epub 2023 Mar 14.
Child maltreatment has many consequences through the lifespan. The general practitioners (GPs) are in longitudinal contact with the family and can play an important role in identifying children in danger and reporting to the social services.
To explore how GPs manage suspicions of child maltreatment and to investigate potential demographic and geographic differences in reporting practices among Danish GPs.
All registered GPs in Denmark retrieved from Medcom, a state-financed non-profit organization.
We mailed a questionnaire to all registered GPs with demographics, experiences, knowledge, and attitudes in the context of child maltreatment.
We received 1252 completed questionnaires (response rate: 38 %). Most of the participants had suspected child maltreatment during their professional life (90 %) and had made a mandatory report (85 %). More than half had received feedback after the report (56 %) and said that their report led to action (56 %). Most GPs reported feeling confident in dealing with child maltreatment (79 %) and being willing to get involved in case of suspicion (8.9 on a 0-10 scale). We observed no geographical differences in reporting neither across the Danish regions nor among rural and urban practices, but GPs working in single practices made fewer reports to the social services.
Participant GPs in this study are aware of their role in child protection, have experiences with mandatory reports, and are willing to get involved. Possible areas for attention include collaboration and support between different settings, especially between GP practice, hospitals, justice sector, and social services.
儿童虐待会对其一生造成诸多影响。全科医生（GP）与家庭保持纵向联系，可以在识别处于危险中的儿童并向社会服务机构报告方面发挥重要作用。
探讨全科医生如何处理儿童虐待的怀疑，并调查丹麦全科医生报告做法中的潜在人口统计学和地理差异。
从由国家资助的非营利组织 Medcom 中检索到丹麦所有注册的全科医生。
我们向所有注册的全科医生邮寄了一份调查问卷，内容涉及儿童虐待方面的人口统计学、经验、知识和态度。
我们收到了 1252 份完整的问卷（回复率：38%）。大多数参与者在职业生涯中曾怀疑过儿童虐待（90%），并进行了强制报告（85%）。超过一半的人在报告后收到了反馈（56%），并表示他们的报告引发了行动（56%）。大多数全科医生表示在处理儿童虐待方面有信心（79%），并愿意在怀疑时参与其中（0-10 分制的 8.9 分）。我们没有观察到报告在丹麦各地区之间或农村和城市实践之间存在地理差异，但在单一实践中工作的全科医生向社会服务机构的报告较少。
本研究中的参与者全科医生意识到他们在儿童保护方面的角色，有进行强制报告的经验，并且愿意参与其中。可能需要关注的领域包括不同环境之间的协作和支持，特别是全科医生实践、医院、司法部门和社会服务之间的协作和支持。
