The Barriers to Recognizing and Reporting Child Physical Abuse by Emergency Physicians and Associated Factors

Although the reporting rate of child abuse is increasing every year, the child abuse detection rate is 3.81% as of 2019 in Korea, which is significantly lower than that of developed countries for child rights.

We investigated the associated factors with barriers that emergency physicians face in recognizing and reporting cases of child abuse.

From May to July 2022, 240 emergency physicians working in the 15 emergency department were asked to participate in the survey via email. The questionnaire included the respondent's basic information, treatment experience for child abuse, reasons for reporting or not reporting, and opinions on measures to increase the reporting rate. We conducted a logistic regression analysis to discern the factors contributing to underreporting.

Seventy-one individuals were included in the analysis, after excluding those who had never encountered suspected cases of child abuse. A multivariable logistic regression was performed with the above variables, and although it was not statistically significant, there was a tendency for workers to report well when working at a pediatric emergency department (odds ratio [95% confidence interval], 3.97 [0.98-16.09]). The primary reason for reporting suspected abuse was the pattern of damage suspected of abuse. The first reason for not reporting suspected abuse was because they were not sure it was child abuse. Respondents answered that to report better, a quick and appropriate response from the police and confidentiality of the reporter were needed.

Physicians in pediatric emergency departments demonstrated a tendency for more proactive reporting suspected cases of child abuse.