The Incidence of Child Maltreatment Resulting in Hospitalizations for Children Under Age 3 Years

Pediatric Hospital Admissions with Concern for Neglect: Correlations Between Neglect Types and Other Clinical and Environmental Risk Factors

OBJECTIVE

Child neglect is a public health concern with negative consequences that impact children, families, and society. While neglect is involved with many pediatric hospitalizations, few studies explore characteristics associated with neglect types, social needs, and post-discharge care.

METHODS

Data on neglect type, sociodemographics, social needs, inpatient consultations, and post-discharge care were collected from the electronic medical record for children aged 0-5 years who were hospitalized with concern for neglect during 2016-2020. Frequencies and percentages were calculated to determine sample characteristics. The Chi-square Test for Independence was used to evaluate associations between neglect type and other variables.

RESULTS

The most common neglect types were inadequate nutrition (40%), inability to provide basic care (37%), intrauterine substance exposure (25%), combined types (23%), and inadequate medical care (10%). Common characteristics among neglect types included age less than 1 year, male sex, Hispanic ethnicity, public insurance, past involvement with Child Protective Services, and inpatient consultation services (social work, physical therapy, and occupational therapy), and post-discharge recommendations (primary care, physical therapy, and regional center). Neglect type groups varied by child medical history, social needs, and discharge recommendations. Statistically significant associations supported differences per neglect type.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings highlight five specific types of neglect seen in an impoverished and ethnically diverse geographic region. Post-discharge care needs should focus on removing social barriers and optimizing resources, in particular mental health, to mitigate the risk of continued neglect. Future studies should focus on prevention strategies, tailored interventions, and improved resource allocations per neglect type and discharge location.

Early predictors for maltreatment-related injuries in infancy and long-term mortality: a population-based study

INTRODUCTION

Incidence, health consequences, and social burden associated with child maltreatment appeared to be borne disproportionately by very young children. We conducted a population-based data linkage study to explore child- and family-level factors that affect receiving different diagnoses of maltreatment injuries and investigate excessive mortality throughout toddlerhood.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective cohort study comprising 2.2 million infants born in 2004-2014 in Taiwan. Incident cases of child maltreatment were defined by hospitalization or emergency department visits for three heterogeneous diagnostic groups of maltreatment-related injuries (i.e., maltreatment syndrome, assaults, and undetermined causes) within 12 months after birth. The generalized linear model and landmark survival analyses were used to evaluate risk factors.

RESULTS

An estimated 2.9‰ of infants experienced at least one maltreatment-related injury, with a three-year mortality rate of 1.3%. Low birthweight was associated with increased risk of receiving the diagnosis of three maltreatment injuries, particularly maltreatment syndrome (adjusted Incidence Rate Ratio [aIRR] = 4.08, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.93-5.68). Socially advantaged family condition was inversely linked with receiving the diagnosis of maltreatment syndrome and assaults (e.g., high income: aIRR = 0.55 and 0.47), yet positively linked with undetermined cause (aIRR = 2.05, 95% CI: 1.89-2.23). For infants exposed to maltreatment, low birth weight and non-attendance of postnatal care were highly predictive of fatality; low birthweight served as a vital predictor for premature death during toddlerhood (aIRR = 6.17, 95% CI: 2.36-15.4).

CONCLUSIONS

Raising awareness of maltreatment-related injuries in infancy and predictors should be a priority for appropriate follow-up assessment and timely intervention.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Infant Maltreatment Emergency Department and Inpatient Medical Encounters

OBJECTIVE

To assess the counts of infant maltreatment-related medical encounters at a large medical system during a 21-month span of the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

Retrospective data for this study came from all inpatient and emergency department medical encounters for infants from January 1, 2016, through November 30, 2021, at a single children's hospital system in California. Distributions of medical encounters were tabulated and plotted over time. Interrupted time series models were used to evaluate changes in child maltreatment medical encounters.

RESULTS

Medical encounters for infants with child maltreatment diagnoses increased following the onset of COVID-19. Monthly counts of encounters with indicated maltreatment trended upward following the start of the pandemic. Interrupted time series models showed that the count of maltreatment encounters increased 64% with the onset of COVID-19.

CONCLUSIONS

We found an increase in infant maltreatment medical encounters during a 21-month period following the onset of COVID-19. These findings suggest that the pandemic may have adversely affected the safety of infants and ongoing work is needed to understand better the pandemic impacts on child maltreatment.

The Measurement of Intimate Partner Violence Using International Classification of Diseases Diagnostic Codes: A Systematic Review

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is challenging to measure yet systematic surveillance of IPV is critical to informing public health prevention and response efforts. Administrative medical data provide opportunities for such surveillance, and often use the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). The primary purpose of this systematic review was to document which ICD codes have been used in empirical literature to identify IPV, understand the justification used to select specific codes to develop IPV case definitions, and identify the data sources and types of research questions addressed by the existing literature. We searched 11 databases and of the initial 2182 results, 21 empirical studies from 2000 to 2020 met the study inclusion criteria including using ICD codes to measure IPV. The majority of these studies (90.5%) used either national samples of data or population-based administrative data from emergency departments (52.4%) or inpatient hospitalizations (38.1%). We found wide variation of ICD diagnostic codes to measure IPV and categorized the sets of codes used based on the number of codes. The most commonly used ICD-9 codes were E967.3, 995.81, 995.80, 995.85 and the most common ICD-10 codes were T74.1 and Z63.0. Few studies validated the ICD codes used to measure IPV. Most included studies (81.0%) answered epidemiological research questions. The current study provides suggestions for future research, including justifying the selection of ICD codes and providing a range of estimates based on narrow and broad sets of codes. Implications for policy and practice, including enhanced training for healthcare professionals in documenting IPV, are discussed.

Child Maltreatment: A Comparison of Wisconsin Children Identified in Health Care and Child Protective Services (CPS) Records, 2018-2019

CONTEXT

Child Protective Services (CPS) reports and health records (hospital inpatient and emergency department visits) are the primary data sources to measure child maltreatment; yet, they are not linked at the state or national level. Linking provides novel insight into the demographic characteristics of the populations served by one or both agencies, thus informing opportunities for prevention and intervention.

OBJECTIVE

This study compares children identified as maltreated in health records (based on International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification [ ICD-10-CM ] codes indicating suspected or confirmed child maltreatment) and/or CPS reports.

DESIGN

Three mutually exclusive comparison groups were created: group 1- children with a nonfatal hospitalization and/or emergency department visit with a maltreatment ICD-10-CM code and an investigated CPS report; group 2- children with a maltreatment ICD-10-CM code in a health record without an investigated CPS report; and group 3- children with an investigated CPS report without a health record with a maltreatment ICD-10-CM code. Descriptive statistics and tests for statistically significant differences were conducted.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

Wisconsin children with maltreatment ICD-10-CM code in health record and/or CPS-investigated report from 2018 to 2019.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

Demographic and maltreatment type differences between groups.

RESULTS

Group 1 children were significantly younger than those in other groups ( P <. 001), and group 2 children were significantly more female (69.6%; P < .001). Black children were overrepresented in all groups and most disproportionate among group 1 (39.5%; P < .001). Maltreatment type also differed significantly across groups.

CONCLUSIONS

CPS staff and health providers encounter overlapping and nonoverlapping populations of children experiencing different types of maltreatment. Although interventions may be tailored toward the type of maltreatment and other relevant child characteristics, all populations could benefit from referrals and access to supportive social services. Agency contact provides an opportunity to intervene and support at-risk children and families.

Reports and Removals of Child Maltreatment-Related Hospitalizations: A Population-Based Study

Despite U.S. child protective services (CPS) agencies relying on mandated reporters to refer concerns of child maltreatment to them, there is little data regarding which children mandated reporters decide to report and not to report. This study addresses this gap by utilizing a population-based linked administrative dataset to identify which children who are hospitalized for maltreatment-related reasons are reported to CPS and which are removed by CPS. The dataset was comprised of all children born in Washington State between 1999 and 2013 (N = 1,271,416), all hospitalizations for children under the age of three, and all CPS records. We identified maltreatment-related hospitalizations using standardized diagnostic codes. We examined the records for children with maltreatment-related hospitalizations to identify hospitalization-related CPS reports and if the child was removed from their parents. We tested for differences in these system responses using multinomial regression. About two-thirds of children identified as experiencing a child maltreatment-related hospitalization were not reported to CPS. We found differences in responses by maltreatment subtype and the type of diagnostic code. Children whose hospitalizations were related to abuse and associated with a specific maltreatment code had increased odds of being both reported to CPS and subsequently removed by CPS.

Trends, Diagnoses, and Hospitalization Costs of Child Abuse and Neglect in the United States of America

We conducted a secondary analysis of the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) to examine child abuse and neglect hospitalization from 1998-2016. The NIS is the largest all-payer, inpatient care database in the United States and is maintained by the Health Care Utilization Project. Participants were youth 18 years and younger with discharged diagnoses of child abuse and neglect from hospitals. The rate of child abuse or neglect hospitalizations did not vary significantly over the study period (1998-2016), which on average was 6.9 per 100,000 children annually. Males (53.0%), infants (age < 1; 47.3%), and young children (age 1-3; 24.2%) comprised most of the child maltreatment cases. Physical abuse was the most frequent type of maltreatment leading to hospitalization. Government insurance was the most common payer source, accounting for 77.3% of all child maltreatment hospitalizations and costing 1.4 billion dollars from 2001-2016. Hospitalizations due to child abuse and neglect remain steady and are costly, averaging over $116 million per year. The burden on government sources suggests a high potential for return on investment in effective child abuse prevention strategies.