title: Adolescents as victims of familial violence: a hospital based surveillance.
abstract: Adolescent abuse is an important and understudied issue in society. The objective of this study was to examine the epidemiology of physical injuries due to maltreatment among adolescents aged 10-19 years. Subjects came from seven hospitals/trauma centres in Washington DC that were involved in the Washington DC Initiative to Reduce Infant Mortality and Prevention of Childhood Injuries Study. From 1996-1998, information was gathered about all injuries to adolescents aged 10-19 years that resulted in a visit to a participating emergency department. This paper focuses on the subset 178 adolescents aged 10-19 years who presented with physical injuries due to maltreatment. It was found that 55% of victims of abuse were female. Abuse victims were more likely to be female than those with unintentional injury. The most common injuries were contusions to the extremities (29%). Mothers were the most common perpetrators (48%). A total of 64% of victims were assaulted with an object/weapon and the most common object used was a belt. There are some similarities and some important differences between patterns of maltreatment in adolescents vs. younger children. Increased awareness of maltreatment among older children is a critical step in increasing and improving screening and prevention practices among health-care professionals.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DESPR/NICHD/NIH), 6100 Executive Blvd., Room 7B03, Bethesda, MD 20892-7510, USA. salujag@mail.nih.gov
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Saluja
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Marquez
authors.forename: T L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Trumble
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Brenner
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000208:ethnology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004219:District of Columbia / Q000453:epidemiology; D017579:Domestic Violence / Q000208:ethnology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011159:Population Surveillance; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D014193:Trauma Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data