Physical abuse of young children during the COVID-19 pandemic: Alarming increase in the relative frequency of hospitalizations during the lockdown period

Loiseau, Mélanie; Cottenet, Jonathan; Bechraoui‐Quantin, Sonia; Gilard‐Pioc, Séverine; Mikaeloff, Yann; Jollant, Fabrice; François‐Purssell, Irène; Jud, Andreas; Quantin, Catherine

doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105299

Cited by 35 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…1). This nding is con rmed by many manuscripts which talk about the correlation of CAN and SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, demonstrating that the volume of observed CAN cases decreased during stay-at-home policies and lockdowns [6][7][8][9][11][12][13]. The present study allows us to con rm this nding because the major decrease in referred cases was detected during March -June 2020 (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

“…The meaningfulness of the latter statements showed itself in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Indeed, during the pandemic the only available data about the possible effect on CAN were based on clinical perceptions of healthcare professionals due to the absence of available information in the scienti c literature [6,7]. For these reasons, recently the scienti c community started to report the rst data about the possible in uence of the pandemic on CAN phenomenon, highlighting meaningful information which can be useful to understand and to identify corrective strategies [6][7][8][9].…”

Section: What Is Newmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Child Abuse and Neglect

Lupariello

Mattioda

Lauria

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Purpose - Child abuse and neglect (CAN) is a worldwide issue due to its biological, psychological, and social effects. Research in this field is particularly useful to understand CAN aspects which are still unknown and to define updated intervention strategies. Until now, there are no clear indications about the possible effects determined by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on CAN. For these reasons, the authors of the present manuscript propose a study in which they compared quantitative and qualitative variables of pre-pandemic and pandemic cases evaluated at an Italian ambulatory specialized in diagnosis and management of CAN. The main aims were to: define if there was a reduction or an increase of cases referred for CAN during SARS-CoV-2 pandemic; evaluate if there were statistically significant differences of variables’ distributions between pre-pandemic and pandemic periods. Methods - The study included children 0 - 18 years of age who were referred to the specialized ambulatory during the first 13 months of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic in Italy: March 2020 - March 2021. As control group (Group B - GB), the authors chose children 0 - 18 years of age evaluated by the healthcare professionals of the same ambulatory from March 2018 to March 2019. Ages and main qualitative variables were compared between the two samples throughout statistical tests. Results - The analysis yielded no statistical differences for age distributions and for the most part of qualitative variables. The study pointed out a reduction of the distribution of the number of cases. Conclusions - In this study, the comparison of frequencies’ distribution of the most part of variables between pre and post pandemic samples did not differ. The most important result of the present analysis is that in the pandemic period the volume of observed CAN cases decreased. This allows us to confirm the indications of the scientific literature. We cannot exclude that the decrease was due to a negative impact of the pandemic on the child protection system. The afore-mentioned data will be useful to program corrective interventions, also for future pandemic and disasters.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Section: What Is Newmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Child Abuse and Neglect

Lupariello

Mattioda

Lauria

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Secondly, these results hold when eliminating months of summer vacations when schools are closed (SI Table A5), and are virtually unchanged if we use raw measures of sexual abuse and rape with over-reporting on the first day of each month rather than smoothed measures (SI Table A6). If disaggregating DV by specific classifications, we observe results are both largest in magnitude and proportion when considering moderate physical violence, followed by psychological violence, and smallest or insignificant when considering serious physical violence, consistent with these more serious cases being captured by authorities even when schools are closed (Loiseau et al, 2021) (SI Table A7).…”

Section: Impacts Of School Closure and Reopening On Violence Reportingsupporting

confidence: 62%

Schools as a Safety-net: The Impact of School Closures and Reopenings on Rates of Reporting of Violence Against Children

Clarke¹,

Larroulet²,

Pailañir³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Ongoing school closures and gradual reopenings have been occurring since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. One substantial cost of school closure is breakdown in channels of reporting of violence against children, in which schools play a considerable role. There is, however, little evidence documenting how widespread such a breakdown in reporting of violence against children has been, and scant evidence exists about potential recovery in reporting as schools re-open. We study all formal criminal reports of violence against children occurring in Chile up to December 2021, covering physical, psychological, and sexual violence. This is combined with administrative records of school re-opening, attendance, and epidemiological and public health measures. We observe sharp declines in violence reporting at the moment of school closure across all classes of violence studied. Estimated reporting declines range from -17% (rape), to -43% (sexual abuse). While reports rise with school re-opening, recovery of reporting rates is slow. Conservative projections suggest that reporting gaps remained into the final quarter of 2021, nearly two years after initial school closures. Our estimates suggest that school closure and incomplete re-opening resulted in around 2,800 'missing' reports of intra-family violence, 2,000 missing reports of sexual assault, and 230 missing reports of rape against children, equivalent to between 10-25 weeks of reporting in baseline periods. The immediate and longer term impacts of school closures account for between 40-70% of 'missing' reports in the post-COVID period.

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“…Moreover, there were numerous temporary classroom closures, and closure of universities for several weeks during the 2020–2021 academic year. Finally, lockdown periods may have had negative impacts on the functioning of many families [ 20 ], including high rates of domestic violence toward juveniles [ 16 , 21 , 22 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prolonged impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on self-harm hospitalizations in France: A nationwide retrospective observational study

et al. 2022

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Background The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in France was associated with a reduced number of hospitalizations for self-harm, with the exception of older people. The on-going pandemic may have both sustained and delayed effects. Methods Data were extracted from the French national hospital database (PMSI), a nationwide exhaustive database. The number of self-harm hospitalizations (ICD-10 codes X60–84) between September 1, 2020 and August 31, 2021 (N = 85,679) was compared to 2019 (N = 88,782) using Poisson regression models. Results There was a decrease in the total number of self-harm hospitalizations during the studied period versus 2019 (−3.5%; Relative Risk [RR] [95% Confidence Intervals] = 0.97 [0.96–0.97]; p < 0.0001). However, sex and age effects were identified. While adults aged 30–59-years-old showed a decrease (monthly decreases: −12.6 to −15.0%), we found an increase in adolescent girls (+27.7%, RR = 1.28 [1.25–1.31]; p < 0.0001), notably since January 2021. Moreover, the numbers were similar to 2019 in adolescent boys, in youths aged 20–29 years, and in people aged 70 and more. Hospitalizations in intensive care units decreased (−6.7%, RR = 0.93 [0.91–0.96]; p < 0.0001) and deaths at hospital following self-harm remained stable (+0.6%, Hazard Ratio = 0.99 [0.91–1.08], p = 0.79). Conclusions During this second stage, the number of self-harm hospitalizations remained at a lower level than in the prepandemic period. However, significant variations over time, age, and sex were observed. Young people (notably adolescent girls) appear to have particularly suffered from the persistence of the pandemic, while older people did not show any decrease since the beginning. Vigilance and continuing prevention are warranted.

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Physical abuse of young children during the COVID-19 pandemic: Alarming increase in the relative frequency of hospitalizations during the lockdown period

Cited by 35 publications

References 41 publications

The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Child Abuse and Neglect

The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Child Abuse and Neglect

Schools as a Safety-net: The Impact of School Closures and Reopenings on Rates of Reporting of Violence Against Children

Prolonged impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on self-harm hospitalizations in France: A nationwide retrospective observational study

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