Marryat Louise, Stephen Jacqueline, Mok Jacqueline, Vincent Sharon, Kirk Charlotte, Logie Lindsay, Devaney John, Wood Rachael
Salvesen Mindroom Research Centre, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Kennedy Tower, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Morningside Park, Edinburgh, EH10 5HF.
School of Health Sciences, University of Dundee, Kirkcaldy Campus, Forth Avenue, Kirkcaldy, Fife, KY2 5YS.
Int J Popul Data Sci. 2023 Dec 14;8(6):2173. doi: 10.23889/ijpds.v8i6.2173. eCollection 2023.
Child maltreatment affects a substantial number of children. However current evidence relies on either longitudinal studies, which are complex and resource-intensive, or linked data studies based on social services data, which is arguably the tip of the iceberg in terms of children who are maltreated. Reliable, linked, population-level data on children referred to services due to suspected abuse or neglect will increase our ability to examine risk factors for, and outcomes following, abuse and neglect.
The objective of this project was to create a linkable population level dataset, The Edinburgh Child Protection Dataset (ECPD), comprising all children referred to the Edinburgh Child Protection Paediatric healthcare team due to a concern about their welfare between 1995 and 2015.
The paper presents the process for creating the dataset. The analyses provide examples of available data from the main referrals dataset between 1995 and 2011 (where data quality was highest).
19,969 referrals were captured, relating to 11,653 children. Of the 19,969 referrals, a higher proportion were girls (54%), although boys were referred for physical abuse more often than girls (41% versus 30%). Younger children were more likely to be referred for physical abuse (35% of 0-4 year olds vs. 27% 15+): older children were more likely to be referred for sexual abuse (48% of 15+ years vs. 18% of 0-4 years). Most referrals came from social workers (46%) or police (31%).
The ECPD offers a unique insight into the characteristics of referrals to child protection paediatric services over a key period in the history of child protection in Scotland. It is hoped that by making these data available to researchers, and able to be easily linked with both mother and child current and future health records, evidence will be created to better support maltreated children and monitor changes over time.
儿童虐待影响着大量儿童。然而，目前的证据要么依赖于复杂且资源密集的纵向研究，要么基于社会服务数据的关联数据研究，而这些数据在遭受虐待的儿童数量方面可谓是冰山一角。关于因涉嫌虐待或忽视而被转介到服务机构的儿童的可靠、关联的人口层面数据，将增强我们审视虐待和忽视的风险因素及后果的能力。
本项目的目的是创建一个可关联的人口层面数据集，即爱丁堡儿童保护数据集（ECPD），该数据集包含1995年至2015年间因对其福利状况的担忧而被转介到爱丁堡儿童保护儿科医疗团队的所有儿童。
本文介绍了创建该数据集的过程。分析提供了1995年至2011年期间主要转介数据集（数据质量最高）的可用数据示例。
共记录了19969次转介，涉及11653名儿童。在这19969次转介中，女孩的比例更高（54%），不过男孩因身体虐待被转介的频率高于女孩（41%对30%）。年龄较小的儿童更有可能因身体虐待被转介（0至4岁儿童中有35%，15岁及以上儿童中有27%）；年龄较大的儿童更有可能因性虐待被转介（15岁及以上儿童中有48%，0至4岁儿童中有18%）。大多数转介来自社会工作者（46%）或警方（31%）。
ECPD提供了对苏格兰儿童保护历史关键时期转介到儿童保护儿科服务的特征的独特见解。希望通过将这些数据提供给研究人员，并能够轻松地与母亲和儿童当前及未来的健康记录相联系，能够生成证据以更好地支持受虐待儿童并监测随时间的变化。
