Prevention and contrast of child abuse and neglect in the practice of European paediatricians: a multi-national pilot study

Italian Journal of Pediatrics

Giorgina Kuli-Lito¹  Donjeta Bali¹  Laszlo Losonczi²  Paola Nigri³  Pietro Ferrara⁴  Julije Mestrovic⁵  Ida Giardino⁶  Eli Somekh⁷  Angel Carrasco-Sanz⁸  Massimo Pettoello-Mantovani⁹  Luigi Nigri^1,10  Giovanni Corsello^1,11  Maria Teresa Balducci^1,12  Doina Plesca^1,13  Tudor Lucian Pop^1,14  Leyla Namazova-Baranova^1,15  Mehmet Vural^1,16 

[1] Albanian Pediatric Society, Tirana, Albania;Association of Hungarian Primary Care Paediatrician, Budapest, Hungary;Campus Bio-Medico University Medical School, Rome, Italy;Campus Bio-Medico University Medical School, Rome, Italy;Italian Society of Pediatrics, Rome, Italy;Croatian Society of Pediatrics, Zagreb, Croatia;Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy;Department of Pediatrics, Mayanei Hayeshuah Medical Center, Bnei Brak, Israel;European Confederation of Primary Care Pediatricians, Lyon, France;European Paediatric Association, Union of National European Pediatric Societies and Associations, Berlin, Germany;Italian Federation of Pediatricians, Rome, Italy;Italian Society of Pediatrics, Rome, Italy;Institute of Pediatrics, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy;Local Health District, Poly-ambulatory, Statistic service, ASL10, Bari, Italy;Romanian Society of Paediatrics, Bucharest, Romania;Romanian Society of Social Pediatrics, Cluj, Romania;Russian Academy of Pediatrics, Moscow, Russia;Turkish Pediatric Association, Istanbul, Turkey;

关键词: Maltreatment;    Child;    Violence;    Abuse;    Neglect;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13052-021-01055-y

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundChild abuse and neglect, or maltreatment, is a serious public health problem, which may cause long-term effects on children’s health and wellbeing and expose them to further adulthood vulnerabilities. Studies on child maltreatment performed in Europe are scarce, and the number of participants enrolled relatively small. The aim of this multi-national European pilot study, was to evaluate the level of understanding and perception of the concepts of child abuse and neglect by European paediatricians working in different medical settings, and the attitude toward these forms of maltreatment in their practice.MethodsThe study was performed by a cross-sectional, descriptive, online survey, made available online to European paediatricians members of 50 national paediatric, who belonged to four different medical settings: hospital, family care, university centres and private practice.The questionnaire, designed as a multiple choice questions survey, with a single answer option consisted of 22 questions/statements. Frequency analyses were applied. Most of the data were described using univariate analysis and Chi-squared tests were used to compare the respondents and answers and a significance level of p ≤ 0.05 applied.ResultsFindings show that European paediatricians consider the training on child maltreatment currently provided by medical school curricula and paediatric residency courses to be largely insufficient and continuing education courses were considered of great importance to cover educational gaps. Physical violence was recognized by paediatricians mostly during occasional visits with a significant correlation between detecting abuse during an occasional visit and being a primary care paediatrician. Results also showed a reluctance by paediatricians to report cases of maltreatment to the competent judicial authorities.ConclusionsData of this study may provide useful contribution to the current limited knowledge about the familiarity of European paediatricians with child maltreatment and their skills to recognize, manage and contrast abusive childhood experiences in their practice. Finally, they could provide local legislators and health authorities with information useful to further improve public health approaches and rules able to effectively address shared risk and protective factors, which could prevent child abuse and neglect from ever occurring.

【 授权许可】

CC BY