Study: Child abuse rose during recession
AP
CHICAGO — An increase in child abuse, mostly in infants, is linked with the recent recession in new research that raises fresh concerns about the impact of the nation's economic woes.
The results are in a study of 422 abused children from mostly lower-income families, known to face greater risks for being abused, and the research involved just 74 counties in four states.
But lead author Dr. Rachel Berger of Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh said the results confirm anecdotal reports from many pediatricians who've seen increasing numbers of shaken baby cases and other forms of brain-injuring abuse.
Berger decided to study this type of injury, known as abusive head trauma, after noticing an increase at her own hospital from late 2007 through June 2009. Her hospital averaged 30 cases per year during those recession years versus 17 yearly before 2007.
Though this abuse is still uncommon, the number of cases in the counties studied increased sharply, rising from about 9 cases per 100,000 children in pre-recession years, to almost 15 per 100,000 kids during the recession — a 65 percent increase.
By contrast, juvenile diabetes — a better-known condition — affects about 19 per 100,000 children younger than age 10.
Children studied were younger than 5, and most were infants. Most suffered brain damage and 69 died, though the death rate didn't rise during the recession.
Unemployment rates in the 74 counties rose during the five-year study. The proportion of children on Medicaid in those counties also increased, from 77 percent before the recession to 83 percent. However, insurance and family employment information were not reported for the abused children in the study.
Combine the stress of raising a young child with wage cuts or lost jobs and you get "a sort of toxic brew in terms of thinking about possible physical violence," said Mark Rank, a social welfare professor at Washington University in St. Louis. He said the study echoes sociological research linking violence with declines in economic well-being.
Along with U.S. Census data released last week indicating that a record 46 million Americans are poor, the study shows that "as poverty goes up and economic stagnation continues...there are really human costs involved," Rank said.
Poverty continues to rise in U.S., now 15.1%
Poverty in America: Faces behind the figures
The study was released online Monday in Pediatrics.
The counties studied included Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania; central and southern Ohio; and a handful of counties in northern Kentucky and in the Seattle area. The researchers examined medical records and national labor statistics for 2004 through November 2007 and compared them with data from the recession.
Of the 422 children diagnosed with abusive head trauma during the study, roughly 65 cases occurred each year before the recession, versus about 108 yearly during the recession.
Federal government data suggest that the recession did not affect child abuse rates. But the study authors said those numbers are based on reports from child protective services, not medical diagnoses, and did not address brain injuries specifically.
The research doesn't prove that the recession caused the abuse. Studying different regions and children from more middle-class families would help clarify if the recession really played a role, said Dr. Peter Sherman, director of the residency program in social pediatrics at Montefiore Medical Center in New York.
Sherman noted that most children studied were publicly insured even before the recession, suggesting that their families were already struggling financially.
Still, the recession affected many lower-income families, and Sherman said the study highlights "a very important issue."
Many of his patients are from poor families and abuse is not uncommon, he said.
He said pediatricians could help with prevention by asking families about difficulties paying for food or shelter and referring those in need to social service agencies. Sometimes just asking parents about stresses in their lives and acknowledging their struggles can help, he said.
Most parents who abuse young children aren't "ill-intentioned," he said. "Most of it is kind of just snapping...maybe being sleep-deprived and just losing it. It's something that can happen to anyone. Economics is just another stress" that can increase the risks, Sherman said.
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In contrast, the kind of maltreatment described in this study remains extremely rare.
This study covered a five-and-a-half year period in an area with a total population well over a million. Over that long time in that large area they found an average of 78 cases of abusive head trauma per year, of which an average of 13 were fatal.
Each of these was the worst imaginable tragedy. But precisely because the raw numbers are so low, it would take a relatively small number of additional cases per year in each of the three jurisdictions to create what appears to be a large percentage increase.
Both before and after the recession, each of these terrible tragedies was a needle in a very large haystack. The danger in hyping such studies is that they encourage efforts to try to find the needles by vacuuming up the haystack. (And sure enough, instead of urging help with poverty the authors urge more "vigilance" - which translates into overloading child protective services with even more false reports while needlessly traumatizing children in even more families and throwing more children needlessly into foster care). That never works.
To the extent that there is any real lesson here it is that the best way to prevent *any* form of child maltreatment is to ameliorate the worst hardships of poverty. So that raises a question: I wonder how many rent subsidies or day care subsidies for impoverished families could have been purchased for the amount expended in staff time and other expenses producing one more study telling us what we already know?
Richard Wexler
Executive Director
National Coalition for Child Protection Reform
www.nccpr.org
First, the VAERS database by design includes reports of adverse events that followed vaccination whether or not the adverse event was caused by vaccination. The VAERS program specifically "seeks reports of any clinically significant medical event that occurs after vaccination, even if the reporter cannot be certain that the event was caused by the vaccine . . . You should report adverse events even if you are unsure whether a vaccine caused them . . . The fact that an adverse event occurred following immunization is not conclusive evidence that the event was caused by a vaccine."
Second, you suggestion that autism prevalence has increased in low-income families because "vaccinations were made available to lower income families" is a rather interesting attempt to cling to a failed hypothesis. By the way, research involves rigorously testing a hypothesis; what you call "research" is actually "web surfing."
I have lots of books and journals on the subject. I'd be happy to back up my comments with references & sources.
The VAERS is only as good as the info that's put into it anyway. It was scrubbed before it was passed back to the public. It's estimated that only 10% of vaccine related injuries get reported anyway. The rest don't get reported.
Let's talk about your definition of "research" (rigorously testing a hypothesis) You mean like they do with a vaccine before it's released? The testing they do is a joke. There are NO LONG TERM STUDIES of the effects of vaccines on newborns. There is a revolving door between the FDA and companies like Merck. The same people that serve as legal counsel for the vaccine industry are the same people passing lax regulations so new vaccines can get through with minimal testing.
Keep your head in the sand friend.
hard an innocent child should go to prison and take the child
away. They don't geta second time.
How can anyone ever harm or kill a beautiful sweet child.
Our laws need stricter laws for anyone who ever harms a child.
Love them and adore them! There is never any excuse for ever
harming or killing a child. None!
That is just something I googled quickly, but there is plenty more information available out there. I'm not discounting all reported cases of child abuse, but there is always the possibility the injuries could have been vaccine related.
Do your own research on this, I don't have time for a lengthy post.
That is just something I googled quickly, but there is plenty more information available out there. I'm not discounting all reported cases of child abuse, but there is always the possibility the injuries could have been vaccine related.
Do your own research on this, I don't have time for a lengthy post.
The vaccination theories have been debunked - the researcher behind it all confessed to disseminating misinformation. Google that up.