Adolescents as victims of familial violence: a hospital based surveillance.
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.
Saluja
G
G
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
Marquez
V
V
Cheng
T L
TL
Trumble
A
A
Brenner
R A
RA
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