Tyagi Upasana, Chougule Vaibhav T, Devanna Raghu, Anand Rahul Kumar, Alessa Noura Abdulaziz, Jain Amol, Mahabob Nazargi, Lath Harshita, Wadhwan Vijay
Department of Public Health Dentistry, NIMS Dental College and Hospital, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India.
Department of Paediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be) University Dental College and Hospital, Sangli, Maharashtra, India.
J Family Med Prim Care. 2024 Nov;13(11):4880-4884. doi: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_430_24. Epub 2024 Nov 18.
The POCSO (Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences) Act was introduced in 2012 as a measure to safeguard and prevent interests of children affected by sexual crimes. Both medical and dental professionals are capable of identifying such cases.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge and awareness of child sexual abuse related to POCSO Act among both medical and dental professionals in India.
This cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was conducted on 100 medical and dental healthcare professionals employed in a single hospital for evaluation of knowledge and awareness on POCSO Act. The questionnaire containing multiple choice questions was randomly distributed among all the study participants as hard copy or via electronic generated forms. The questionnaire comprised questions related to demographics and those dealing with knowledge and attitude.
Categorical variables were represented in the form of percentages, and data analysis was done using SPSS software.
67% study participants demonstrated full knowledge of POCSO, 23% had some knowledge, and 10% study subjects had absolutely no knowledge regarding this act. 7% professionals opined that the support for such affected children must come from Government Organizations, while 15% believed that Non-Governmental Organizations must support these children. 28% professionals believed that the child support and welfare committee should play a role in supporting these children. However, 50% study participants were of the opinion that the primary support must be community-based. On analyzing statistically, level of knowledge and awareness were found to be statistically significant ( = 0.05).
There appears to be a good amount of knowledge and attitude among both medical and dental professionals regarding POCSO Act.
《保护儿童免受性犯罪法》（POCSO）于2012年出台，作为一项保护和防止受性犯罪影响儿童利益的措施。医学和牙科专业人员都有能力识别此类案件。
本研究的目的是评估印度医学和牙科专业人员对与《保护儿童免受性犯罪法》相关的儿童性虐待的知识和认识。
这项基于问卷调查的横断面研究是针对一家医院雇佣的100名医学和牙科医疗保健专业人员进行的，以评估他们对《保护儿童免受性犯罪法》的知识和认识。包含多项选择题的问卷以硬拷贝形式或通过电子生成的表格随机分发给所有研究参与者。问卷包括与人口统计学相关的问题以及涉及知识和态度的问题。
分类变量以百分比形式表示，数据分析使用SPSS软件进行。
67%的研究参与者对《保护儿童免受性犯罪法》有全面了解，23%有一定了解，10%的研究对象对此法案完全不了解。7%的专业人员认为对这类受影响儿童的支持必须来自政府组织，而15%认为非政府组织应支持这些儿童。28%的专业人员认为儿童支持和福利委员会应在支持这些儿童方面发挥作用。然而，50%的研究参与者认为主要支持必须以社区为基础。经统计分析，知识和认识水平具有统计学意义（P = 0.05）。
医学和牙科专业人员对《保护儿童免受性犯罪法》似乎有相当多的知识和积极态度。
