Diagnostic Tools in the Detection of Physical Child Abuse: A Systematic Review
Vito Pavone,
Andrea Vescio,
Ludovico Lucenti,
Mirko Amico,
Alessia Caldaci,
Xena Giada Pappalardo,
Enrico Parano,
Gianluca Testa
Affiliations
Vito Pavone
Department of General Surgery and Medical Surgical Specialties, Section of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, University Hospital Policlinico “Rodolico-San Marco”, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy
Andrea Vescio
Department of General Surgery and Medical Surgical Specialties, Section of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, University Hospital Policlinico “Rodolico-San Marco”, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy
Ludovico Lucenti
Department of General Surgery and Medical Surgical Specialties, Section of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, University Hospital Policlinico “Rodolico-San Marco”, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy
Mirko Amico
Department of General Surgery and Medical Surgical Specialties, Section of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, University Hospital Policlinico “Rodolico-San Marco”, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy
Alessia Caldaci
Department of General Surgery and Medical Surgical Specialties, Section of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, University Hospital Policlinico “Rodolico-San Marco”, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy
Xena Giada Pappalardo
Unit of Catania, Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation (IRIB), National Council of Research, 95100 Catania, Italy
Enrico Parano
Unit of Catania, Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation (IRIB), National Council of Research, 95100 Catania, Italy
Gianluca Testa
Department of General Surgery and Medical Surgical Specialties, Section of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, University Hospital Policlinico “Rodolico-San Marco”, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy
Child abuse is a critical social issue. The orthopedic surgeon’s role is essential in noticing signs and symptoms of physical abuse. For this reason, several authors have proposed scoring systems to identify abuse early on and reduce undiagnosed cases. The aim of this systematic review is to overview the screening tools in the literature. In 2021, three independent authors performed a systematic review of two electronic medical databases using the following inclusion criteria: physical child abuse, questionnaire, survey, score, screening tool and predictive tool. Patients who had experienced sexual abuse or emotional abuse were excluded. The risk of bias evaluation of the articles was performed according to the Newcastle–Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale Cohort Studies. Any evidence-level study reporting clinical data and dealing with a physical child abuse diagnosis tool was considered. A total of 217 articles were found. After reading the full texts and checking the reference lists, n = 12 (71,035 patients) articles were selected. A total of seven screening tools were found. However, only some of the seven diagnostic tools included demonstrated a high rate of sensitivity and specificity. The main limits of the studies were the lack of heterogeneity of evidence and samples and the lack of common assessing tools. Despite the multiplicity of questionnaires aimed at detecting validated child abuse, there was not a single worldwide questionnaire for early diagnosis. A combination of more than one test might increase the validity of the investigation.
