Citation

Flannery DD, Stephens CL, Thompson AD. J. Child Sex. Abus. 2016; 25(6): 627-635.

Affiliation

b Department of Pediatrics , Nemours/Division of Emergency Services, Alfred I duPont Hospital for Children , Wilmington , Delaware , USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10538712.2016.1187697

PMID

27561119

Abstract

High-profile media cases of sexual abuse may encourage disclosures of abuse from victims of unrelated assaults and also influence parental concerns, leading to increased emergency department visits. In the region of the study authors' institution, there are two recent high-profile sexual abuse cases with media coverage: Earl Bradley, a Delaware pediatrician, and Jerry Sandusky, a Pennsylvania college coach of American football. This is a retrospective cohort study of children evaluated for sexual abuse at a pediatric emergency department. Patients were classified as either presenting during a media period or non-media period. The media periods were one-month periods immediately following breaking news reports, when the cases were highly publicized in the media. The non-media periods were the 12-month periods directly preceding the first reports. The median number of emergency department visits per month during a non-media period was 9 visits (interquartile range 6-10). There were 11 visits in the month following the Sandusky case and 13 visits following the Bradley case. There was no statistical difference in number of emergency department visits for sexual abuse between the periods (p = .09). These finding have implications regarding use of resources in pediatric EDs after high-profile sexual abuse cases.

Language: en