The document discusses improving data on child maltreatment to strengthen prevention efforts. It recommends developing a data system that tracks maltreated children across agencies while de-identifying health information to increase accessibility. Linking data to local geographic areas would make it more useful for community research and interventions. The document also analyzes available national and local data on child maltreatment, finding most sources underrepresent the issue. It advocates compiling data from multiple sources to develop a more robust understanding and inform effective prevention strategies.

1.  Develop a data system that recognizes that
maltreated children often come into contact
with different agencies.6,7
 Protected health information should be
routinely de-identified; therefore allowing
greater data accessibility to obtaining access
to community-level and national figures.6
 Linkages to county or census region allows
for greater applicability to community-based
research and interventions.6
Training First Responders to Recognize Child Abuse &
Neglect: Unexpected Results
Introduction
Discussion & Conclusion
Objectives
Recommendations
References
 Child maltreatment encompasses both
abuse and neglect and can include shaking,
burning, beating, cutting, torturing, as well as
sexual assault and failure to meet a child’s
basic needs.
 It is difficult to attain in-depth knowledge on
the scope of the issue due to various barriers
to acquiring epidemiological data
 There is significant evidence that reported
maltreatment data at national and local
levels do not fully reflect the true prevalence
of child maltreatment.1, 2
 Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s (CHOA)
child maltreatment training program for
medical first responders was designed to
reduce revictimization and fatality in CHOA
hospitals.
 Analyze data available to inform current and
future direction of CHOA’s training program.
 Explore the accessibility of local and national
epidemiological data, and provide
recommendations on making data more publicly
available and in-depth in order to strengthen
community-based prevention programs
 Deepening PH understanding of the issue at
the community level is necessary for
information-driven public health prevention
programming.
 Current epidemiologic studies are limited in
capturing the issue in its entirety, and that by
incorporating alternate information sources
may help to fill out more accurately the
scope of the problem.
 Data that can provide more robust
understanding on child maltreatment is
crucial for developing the most effective
strategies to developing prevention
programs.
1. Schnitzer, P. G., Covington, T. M., Wirtz, S. J., Verhoek-Oftedahl, W., & Palusci,
V. J. (2008). Public Health Surveillance of Fatal Child Maltreatment: Analysis of 3
State Programs. American Journal Of Public Health, 98(2), 296-303.
2. Sedlak, A.J., Mettenburg, J., Basena, M., Petta, I., McPherson, K., Greene, A.,
and Li, S. (2010). Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect
(NIS–4): Report to Congress.Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.
3. Centers for Disease Control. (2014). Child Maltreatment Facts at a Glance 2014.
4. Child Maltreatment 2013. (2015). U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, Children’s Bureau.
5. Georgia Statistics System (2012). Child abuse maltreatment victims by county
2012 [Data file]. Retrieved from http://georgiastats.uga.edu/crossection.html
6. Brownell, M. D., & Jutte, D. P. (2013). Administrative Data Linkage as a Tool for
Child Maltreatment Research. Child Abuse & Neglect: The International
Journal, 37(2-3), 120-124
7. Medina, S., Sell, K., Kavanagh, J., Curtis, C., Wood, J. (2012). Tracking Child
Abuse and Neglect: The Role of Multiple Data Sources in Improving Child
Safety. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute, Policy Lab.
Table 1: Summary of Attempted Sources & Barriers to
Access
Data Source
Data That Can Be
Obtained Barriers and Limitations
CDC WISQARS
Violent death counts
and rates
Capability to run morbidity reports based
on intent and mechanism of death; cannot
extrapolate child maltreatment
CDC WONDER
Fatality counts and
rates by injury, intent,
and ICD-10 codes
Data outputs were severely under-
representative compared to other national
estimates.
National Data
Archive on Child
Abuse and
Neglect
State-by-state
statistics on child
abuse and neglect
Requires submitting a Terms of Use
Agreement for each set of data requested.
Ensuring privacy of research subjects;
prohibits sharing data with colleagues that
have not signed/submitted the agreement.
National Child
Abuse and
Neglect Data
System
State-based child-
specific data; all
investigated reports
of CPS agencies
Requires IRB approval to obtain dataset;
eligibility limited to faculty in research
positions at higher education institution,
or research / government agency.
Easeofaccess
Increasingvalue
Figure 1: Ideal Data Source Compiled from Multiple Sources 7Background
 Recent studies indicate prevalence broadly
such that 1 in 4 children experience some form
of child maltreatment, in their lifetimes.3
 The most recent national child victim rate is
calculated at 9.1 victims per 100,000 children.4
 In Atlanta, Georgia, the incidence rate of child
maltreatment is significantly higher at a rate of
22.5 victims per 100,000 children.5
 In CHOA hospitals in 2010, death from non-
accidental trauma, or child maltreatment,
exceeded death from motor vehicle accidents.
Alicia LaFrance