Temporal factors and the incidence of physical abuse in young children: decreased nonaccidental trauma during Child Abuse Prevention Month.
OBJECTIVE
Educational efforts have been shown to decrease the incidence of abusive injuries. Information related to factors that associate with child abuse would further these educational efforts. We undertook this study to determine the influence of temporal factors and a national preventative program on the incidence of abusive injuries in young children.


METHODS
The Pennsylvania Trauma Outcome Study database was queried for all children 36 months old or younger admitted with abusive injuries. Data collected included day, month, and season. Data were analyzed by Poisson regression.


RESULTS
Six hundred seventy-two cases of child abuse were reported, with a linear increase in the number of cases per year (P < .001). Sunday had fewer abuse cases admitted than any other day of the week (risk ratio, 0.70; P = .008). Younger children were less likely to be injured during April, which is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and more likely to be injured during August and October (all P < .05).


CONCLUSIONS
We observed fewer inflicted injuries in young children on Sundays, and during April. The causes for these significant variations deserve further study.
Thomas
Neal J
NJ
Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Penn State Children's Hospital and Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033, USA. nthomas@psu.edu
Shaffer
Michele L
ML
Rzucidlo
Susan
S
Shirk
Beverly J
BJ
Dias
Mark S
MS
D000367:Age Factors; D002056:Burns / Q000453:epidemiology; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009313:National Health Programs; D010414:Pennsylvania / Q000453:epidemiology; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013997:Time Factors; D014949:Wounds, Nonpenetrating / Q000453:epidemiology