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Updated: May 8, 2026
Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
The assessment of the readiness of five countries to implement child maltreatment prevention programs on a large
Christopher Mikton1, Mick Power2, Marija Raleva3
1Department of Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability, World Health Organization, Switzerland.
Insights
Five countries show low to moderate readiness for large-scale child maltreatment prevention programs. Key gaps include trained professionals, funding, and outcome evaluations, hindering successful implementation.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Social Sciences
- Child Welfare
Background:
- Child maltreatment prevention requires systematic readiness assessment for effective large-scale implementation.
- Assessing national capacity is crucial for identifying and addressing barriers to evidence-based interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically assess the readiness of Brazil, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa for large-scale implementation of evidence-based child maltreatment prevention programs.
- To identify key gaps and challenges hindering the widespread adoption of effective child maltreatment prevention strategies in these nations.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a novel Readiness Assessment for the Prevention of Child Maltreatment method with two parallel 100-item instruments.
- Instrument 1: Assessed knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of key informants regarding child maltreatment prevention.
- Instrument 2: Expert assessment of national readiness using available data, covering scientific data, legislation, policy, and resources.
Main Results:
- Key informant scores ranged from 31.2% (Brazil) to 45.8% (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia).
- Expert scores ranged from 35.2% (Brazil) to 56% (Malaysia).
- Identified common gaps: lack of skilled professionals, inadequate training institutions, insufficient funding/infrastructure, rare outcome evaluations, and absence of national prevalence surveys.
Conclusions:
- The five assessed countries exhibit low to moderate readiness for large-scale implementation of evidence-based child maltreatment prevention programs.
- The readiness assessment method effectively identifies critical gaps, providing a foundation for targeted interventions to improve program success.
- Addressing identified deficiencies in human resources, funding, evaluation, and data collection is essential for advancing child maltreatment prevention efforts.
Abstract:
This study aimed to systematically assess the readiness of five countries - Brazil, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa - to implement evidence-based child maltreatment prevention programs on a large scale. To this end, it applied a recently developed method called Readiness Assessment for the Prevention of Child Maltreatment based on two parallel 100-item instruments. The first measures the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs concerning child maltreatment prevention of key informants; the second, completed by child maltreatment prevention experts using all available data in the country, produces a more objective assessment readiness. The instruments cover all of the main aspects of readiness including, for instance, availability of scientific data on the problem, legislation and policies, will to address the problem, and material resources. Key informant scores ranged from 31.2 (Brazil) to 45.8/100 (the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) and expert scores, from 35.2 (Brazil) to 56/100 (Malaysia). Major gaps identified in almost all countries included a lack of professionals with the skills, knowledge, and expertise to implement evidence-based child maltreatment programs and of institutions to train them; inadequate funding, infrastructure, and equipment; extreme rarity of outcome evaluations of prevention programs; and lack of national prevalence surveys of child maltreatment. In sum, the five countries are in a low to moderate state of readiness to implement evidence-based child maltreatment prevention programs on a large scale. Such an assessment of readiness - the first of its kind - allows gaps to be identified and then addressed to increase the likelihood of program success.
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