Infants under 12 months most at risk of physical abuse

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-11/b-iu1111915.php

Public Release: 23-Nov-2015
Infants under 12 months most at risk of physical abuse
Three times more likely to die than kids sustaining other types of physical trauma
BMJ

Infants under the age of 12 months are most at risk of serious physical abuse, reveals a large study of severely injured children published online in Emergency Medicine Journal.

And the severity of their injuries means that they are three times more likely to die than children who have sustained other types of trauma, the findings show.

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A clear pattern emerged for children who had been abused. Nearly all of them (98%) were under the age of 5; and three quarters of them (76%) were less than a year old.

Compared with children whose injuries had been accidental, the injuries of abused children were more severe and tended to involve the head/brain.

Accidental injuries tended to involve the arms and legs, while alleged assaults more commonly affected the torso.

A relatively small proportion of the children died as a result of their injuries, but abused children were three times more likely to do so (7.6% vs 2.6%).

Boys were only slightly more likely to be abused (59%), whereas they predominated in the other two categories, particularly alleged assault (89%).

By way of explanation for the age distribution they found, the researchers point out that older children don't escape abuse, but there were only two children between the ages of 11 and 15 reported to TARN.

"It may simply be that the more robust physique of an older child means that major trauma is more difficult to inflict," they suggest.

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tags: child abuse