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Management
of child abuse in Hong Kong public hospitals
Hong
Kong Med J 2003;9:6-9
The Medical Coordinators on Child Abuse
(MCCA) contributed an article in the latest issue Hong Kong Medical
Journal, to discuss the results of a territory-wide inter-hospital
surveillance study of child abuse. Statistics showed that cases
of child abuse seen in public hospitals apparently differed from
those encountered by other organisations.
Throughout the period July 1997 to
June 1999, 592 reports of suspected child abuse were received by
MCCA. Suspected victims included 187 boys and 305 girls. 320 cases
were confirmed to be child abuse. Age of these abused children ranged
from 0 to 16.7 years, with a mean age of 7.3 years. Either, or,
both, biological parents comprised 71.3% of the perpetrators.
Children admitted to hospital due to
suspected child abuse appeared to represent a special subset of
cases. For instance, physical abuse and sexual abuse represented
80% and 12% of new cases, respectively, compared with 47% and 40%
of respective caseload reported to the Child Protection Registry,
Social Welfare Department. Also, victims of sexual abuse reported
in public hospitals tended to be younger and more dependent, a subgroup
of victims whom interview was difficult and spontaneous disclosure
was uncommon.
Abuse was more likely to be established
if the victim had been known to a childcare agency, the abuse was
not sexual, or if the child was seen at a hospital that handled
more than 100 cases of suspected abuse during the study period.
Seven (1.2%) of the abused children died. The authors warned that,
however, since the number of deaths recorded in pubic hospitals
only included those who had been alive for a brief period and thus
necessitating health care, the death toll must be even higher.
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