Child abuse hospitalised 4,500 US kids in one year

Zimbabwe Star (IANS) Monday 6th February, 2012

In one year alone, over 4,500 children in the US were hospitalised due to child abuse, and 300 of them died of their injuries, a new study has said.

The report was prepared by researchers from the Yale School of Medicine, led by John Leventhal, professor of paediatrics and medical director of the Child Abuse and Child Abuse Prevention Programs at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital.

The researchers used the 2006 Kids' Inpatient Database (KID) to estimate the incidence of hospitalisations due to serious physical abuse among children younger than 18 years, Xinhua reported.

They found that 4,569 children were hospitalised in the US in 2006 due to serious abuse, while 300 of these children died.

Children in their first year of life were at highest risk, of being hospitalised, making up 58.2 per 100,000 children in this age group.

"These numbers are higher than the rate of sudden infant death syndrome (about 50 per 100,000 births), which is alarming," said Leventhal.

The estimated national cost for hospitalisation due to serious abusive injuries was around $74 million.

The study has been published in the online edition of Pediatrics.