Can family pediatricians in Italy identify child abuse? A survey

The introduction of the concept of child abuse has radically changed the mode of interaction between pediatricians and children, but also the practice of sanitary personnel in primary care centers, who are often the first to see victims of maltreatment. This study aims at illustrating the results of a questionnaire sent to family doctors, pediatricians and hospitals in Milan and surrounding areas concerning child abuse. Among all the operators, 273 returned the questionnaires. The results show scarce knowledge on how to report to judicial authority in cases of child abuse (51.5%), mainly because of lack of basilar information concerning the manner of reporting. For what concerns specific training, almost half the subjects recruited for the study admitted not to have attended any congress or meeting concerning child maltreatment in the last three years. In the same time span, more than one third has not read any scientific articles concerning child abuse. In addition, 75.6% admit to not ever having attended any professional training course concerning child maltreatment. This study highlights the scarce knowledge on the behalf of pediatricians and general practitioners regarding how to deal with child abuse and the importance of proper training programs.