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Updated: Jun 26, 2026
09:36
Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
Randomized prospective study to evaluate child abuse documentation in the emergency department
Elisabeth Guenther1, Cody Olsen, Heather Keenan
1Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA. elisabeth.guenther@hsc.utah.edu
Summary
Educational interventions did not improve emergency department (ED) documentation of possible physical child abuse in young children. Further studies are needed to enhance health care provider education for better identification and documentation of abuse cases.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine
- Child Abuse Recognition
- Medical Documentation
Background:
- Accurate documentation of possible physical child abuse is crucial for timely intervention.
- Existing educational strategies for health care providers may not be sufficient to improve documentation in emergency departments.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of an educational intervention for health care providers in improving documentation of possible physical child abuse.
- To assess documentation changes in children under 36 months old treated in the emergency department.
Main Methods:
- A statewide group-randomized prospective trial design was employed.
- Emergency departments (EDs) were randomized into no intervention, partial, or full intervention groups.
- Medical records were abstracted before, during, and after intervention periods to measure documentation changes using generalized estimating equations (GEEs).
Main Results:
- A total of 1,575 charts from 14 hospitals were analyzed.
- No statistically significant improvement in documentation was observed across intervention groups (p > 0.2).
- Documentation remained variable even in cases where physical abuse was suspected.
Conclusions:
- The educational interventions tested did not enhance ED documentation of possible physical child abuse.
- There is an ongoing need for improved health care provider education in recognizing and documenting child abuse.
- Innovative educational approaches are necessary to improve the identification of abuse.
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