ArticleChild abuse & neglect2021
Physical abuse of young children during the COVID-19 pandemic: Alarming increase in the relative frequency of hospitalizations during the lockdown period.
Article in Child abuse & neglect, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 51 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Prevalence and Associated Factors of Domestic Violence Against Pregnant Women During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Brain and behavior · 2025Pooled it
- Are we back to normal? Evaluating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on referrals to a child protection service in a tertiary care centre in Vienna, Austria.BMJ paediatrics open · 2026Article
- The use of ICD-10 coding for children hospitalized with suspected child physical abuse at a tertiary care pediatric hospital in Greece.European journal of pediatrics · 2025Article
- The impact of SARS-Co-V pandemic on violence against children: one institution's experience.Forensic science, medicine, and pathology · 2025Article
- [Coding of child abuse and neglect in hospitals in Germany: overview and classification of administrative data].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2025Article
- Suicide Risk Factors in High School Students.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Rates of Trauma Exposure and Posttraumatic Stress in a Pediatric Digital Mental Health Intervention: Retrospective Analysis of Associations With Anxiety and Depressive Symptom Improvement Over Time.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2024Article
- Article
- [Inpatient care capacities in child and adolescent psychiatry-increase in emergency admissions during the COVID-19 pandemic?]Neuropsychiatrie : Klinik, Diagnostik, Therapie und Rehabilitation : Organ der Gesellschaft Osterreichischer Nervenarzte und Psychiater · 2023Article
- Parental stress and physical violence against children during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic: results of a population-based survey in Germany.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2023Article
- Article
- COVID-19 and the unseen pandemic of child abuse.BMJ paediatrics open · 2022Article
- Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on child abuse and neglect: A cross-sectional study in a French Child Advocacy Center.Child abuse & neglect · 2022Observational
- Abusive Head Trauma in Infants During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Paris Metropolitan Area.JAMA network open · 2022Article
- Parenting practices, stressors and parental concerns during COVID-19 in Pakistan.Child abuse & neglect · 2022Article
- Prolonged impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on self-harm hospitalizations in France: A nationwide retrospective observational study.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2022Observational
- Impact of the First COVID Lockdown on Accident- and Injury-Related Pediatric Intensive Care Admissions in Germany-A Multicenter Study.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Burdens and psychosocial consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for Austrian children and adolescents.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Editorial: Do lockdowns scar? Three putative mechanisms through which COVID-19 mitigation policies could cause long-term harm to young people's mental health.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 6 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn France, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a general lockdown from mid-March to mid-May 2020, forcing families to remain confined. We hypothesized that children may have been victims of more physical abuse during the lockdown, involving an increase in the relative frequency of hospitalization.
methodsUsing the national administrative database on all admissions to public and private hospitals (PMSI), we selected all children aged 0-5 years hospitalized and identified physically abused children based on ICD-10 codes. We included 844,227 children hospitalized in March-April 2017-2020, of whom 476 (0.056%) were admitted for physical abuse. Relative frequency of hospitalization for physical abuse observed in March to April 2020 were compared with those from the same months in the three previous years (2017-2019).
findingsEven if absolute number of children exposed to physical abuse did not fluctuate significantly, we found a significant increase in the relative frequency of young children hospitalized for physical abuse from 2017 (0.053%) to 2020 (0.073%). Compared with the 2017-2019 period, and considering the observed decrease in the number of overall hospital admissions during the first lockdown, the number of children exposed to physical violence was 40% superior to what would be expected.
interpretationThe sharp increase in the relative frequency of hospitalizations for physical abuse in children aged 0-5 years in France is alarming. As only the most severe cases were brought to the hospital for treatment during the lockdown, our figures probably only represent the tip of the iceberg of a general increase of violence against young children.
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