Mahajan Ankit, Manas Abhigyan, Jamwal Narita, Nazeer Jazib, Alessa Noura, Agrawal Akriti, Rajguru Jagadish P, Chougule Vaibhav T, Rao Delphine
Department of Dentistry, Government Medical College and Hospital, Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir, India.
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Babu Banarsi Das College of Dental Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
J Family Med Prim Care. 2024 Nov;13(11):5349-5354. doi: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1126_24. Epub 2024 Nov 18.
Child abuse and neglect can be described as all kinds of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, neglect, commercial and/or any other type of exploitation resulting in any potential of causing hurt or an actual form of harm to a child's general health, growth, survival, and dignity. The dentist is in a position to identify physical signs of physical abuse in a child hence, it is important to gauge the knowledge level and perception regarding child abuse and neglect.
The aim of the present study was to ascertain the knowledge, attitude, and experience regarding child abuse and neglect among dentists in India.
This cross-sectional, descriptive, survey-based study was conducted on 100 dental practitioners all over India using a pre-validated questionnaire. The study was approved by the institutional ethics committee. Responses received were recorded in an Excel Worksheet and analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square statistical tool using SPSS software (version 21.0).
We found that 85% of respondents reported child abuse cases of a physical and sexual nature and 87% had knowledge that law enforcement agencies are responsible for reporting such cases. Also, 56% believed that such cases could be reported using electronic mail while other sources were telephone, letters, or personal intervention. Only 12% were fearful of litigation and 24% were concerned about such exposure to a child.
A total of 11% of dentists experienced barriers in reporting such cases while 17% reported with no barriers. Child abuse and neglect are often underreported due to various reasons. This survey has attempted to assess the knowledge, attitude, and experience about child abuse and neglect and has found a few prominent reasons for not reporting such incidents.
虐待和忽视儿童可被描述为各种身体、情感和性虐待、忽视、商业剥削和/或任何其他形式的剥削，这些行为有可能对儿童的总体健康、成长、生存和尊严造成伤害或实际损害。牙医能够识别儿童身体虐待的体征，因此，评估他们关于虐待和忽视儿童的知识水平和认知很重要。
本研究的目的是确定印度牙医对虐待和忽视儿童的知识、态度和经验。
本横断面、描述性、基于调查的研究使用预先验证的问卷对印度各地的100名牙科医生进行。该研究得到了机构伦理委员会的批准。收到的回复记录在Excel工作表中，并使用描述性统计和SPSS软件（版本21.0）的卡方统计工具进行分析。
我们发现，85%的受访者报告了身体和性方面的虐待儿童案件，87%的人知道执法机构负责报告此类案件。此外，56%的人认为此类案件可以通过电子邮件报告，其他途径包括电话报告、信件报告或亲自干预。只有12%的人担心诉讼，24%的人担心此类事件会对儿童造成影响。
共有11%的牙医在报告此类案件时遇到障碍，而17%的人表示没有障碍。由于各种原因虐待和忽视儿童的情况往往报告不足。本次调查试图评估关于虐待和忽视儿童的知识、态度和经验，并发现了一些不报告此类事件的突出原因。
