title: Educating physicians internationally in the diagnosis of child sexual abuse: evaluation of a brief educational intervention in Malawi.
abstract: We designed this pilot study to assess physician knowledge and comfort evaluating child sexual abuse in Malawi and to evaluate the feasibility of a brief educational intervention to improve physician knowledge. A survey was administered to 21 physicians before receiving training on child sexual abuse. The survey was administered again, 3 days later, to assess improvement. Prior to the training, 48% correctly identified the hymen in a photograph, and 24% correctly interpreted the photograph as normal. Of the 11 physicians available for the posttest 3 days later, significant improvement was found in their ability to correctly identify the hymen (6 of 11 pretraining and all 11 posttraining, p = 0.011) and to interpret the photograph correctly (1 of 11 correct pretraining, 9 of 11 posttraining, p = 0.001). This study demonstrates the feasibility of designing trainings on child sexual abuse in a low-income country.
authors.affiliation: a Weill Cornell Medical College , New York , NY , USA.
authors.forename: Aaron J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Kristin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Barlup Toombs
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002983:Clinical Competence; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008295:Malawi; D008297:Male; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000193:education*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation
keywords: child maltreatment; medical education; program development; sexual abuse