The Knowledge Level and Opinions of Physicians about the Medical and Legal Procedures Related to Physical Child Abuse

Abstract

Background: In order to diagnose child abuse,physicians need to consider the possibility of abuse inevery child they encounter, have sufficient informationabout the topic and manage the cases according tocurrent law.Aims: To determine the knowledge level of physicianson child abuse and to learn their opinions about theprocedures when they suspect child abuse.Study Design: A questionnaire (cross-sectional) study.Methods: A detailed questionnaire was applied to 390physicians of whom 233 were general practitioners. Thefirst part of the questionnaire included demographicvariables (age, gender, occupational experience) and thefrequency of child physical abuse cases encountered,since that is the most easily diagnosed and proven formof abuse. The second part consisted of 32 questionsabout diagnosis of physical child abuse and proceduresduring the follow-up of the cases. Statistical analyseswere performed using SPSS version 18.0.Results: Of the participating physicians, 47.4% (n=185)were female and only 13.1% of the physicians hadsome kind of postgraduate training on child abuse. Thecorrect response rate of specialists compared to generalpractitioners was significantly higher. A total of 263(72.3%) physicians thought that there was a specificlaw on physical child abuse in the Turkish Republic.More than two-thirds of physicians thought thatreporting should only be addressed to Social Servicesand physicians should not be obliged to report to lawenforcement.Conclusion: The results of the present study adds to thealready known necessity for better training of physiciansabout physical child abuse and the need to refresh theirknowledge through postgraduate courses. Accordingto current regulations, it is obligatory to report abusecases to the public prosecutor and/or police, thereforephysicians also need training in respect of the legalstatus and medico-legal approach to these cases.