[Prevalence of reported child abuse by parents in a pediatric out-patient population].
A cross-sectional study was carried out to estimate prevalence of child abuse with battering among patients under age 14 for alleged disciplinary purposes. The reference population were children attending pediatric out-patient services at the University Hospital in Campinas, State of São Paulo, Brazil, a city of one million inhabitants with universal coverage in terms of accessing health care in the unit under study. Interviews were carried out with 130 parents or guardians in a randomly selected group according to order of attendance, and the prevalence of child abuse was estimated at 10.8%, considering as positive cases those where parents referred child battering under age one year or where there was evidence of bodily lesion over age one year. A validation study for the experimental questionnaire is proposed in order to allow for future estimation of population prevalence or incidence. The use of qualitative methods is also recommended as a means of gathering detailed data on socio-psychological determination for the supposedly disciplinary aggression with child abuse.
Davoli
A
A
Departamento de Medicina Legal, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, 13083-970, Brasil.
Palhares
F A
FA
Corrêa-Filho
H R
HR
Dias
A L
AL
Antunes
A B
AB
Serpa
J F
JF
Schincariol
P
P