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A national educational campaign to raise awareness of child physical abuse among health care professionals

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European Journal of Pediatrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Education is necessary to improve child physical abuse detection and management. A few studies have described national child abuse training programs, but none has measured changes in knowledge among participants. A collaboration of child abuse experts from the USA, an academic pediatric department, and a non-governmental organization in child protection aimed at (a) training hospital physicians in a train-the-trainer course for the detection and management of child physical abuse and (b) conducting workshops and measuring attendance and gain of knowledge of participants. A train-the-trainer and a national curriculum were created. A 78-item and a 20-item knowledge questionnaire were used pre and post the train-the-trainer course and all workshops, respectively. Nineteen physicians from all pediatric departments of the seven medical schools in Greece attended the course. Eight workshops in seven cities took place with a total attendance of 1220 health care professionals. Gain of knowledge was demonstrated for participants in the train-the-trainer course (p = 0.0015) and local workshops (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: We successfully engaged physicians from all medical schools in Greece and conducted a train-the-trainer module and eight workshops in major cities that improved the participants’ knowledge in child physical abuse. This approach may help address physician deficiencies in emerging areas of child abuse clinical practice.

What is Known:

• Education is necessary to improve child physical abuse detection and management.

• Although national training programs have been described, none has measured participants’ changes in knowledge.

What is New:

• A collaboration of child abuse experts, all medical schools in Greece, and a non-governmental organization resulted in a national educational campaign in child physical abuse and gains in knowledge for participants.

• This approach may help address deficiencies in emerging areas of clinical practice.

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Abbreviations

NKUA:

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Ms. Emy Ntotsika for her invaluable organizing skills. Without the vision and support of ELIZA—the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, this educational campaign would not have been possible. We also would like to thank Emeritus Professor Charles F. Johnson, MD, for his generosity to share the physician knowledge tool that he had developed with all future generations of practitioners to use in the betterment of child protection work. We acknowledge the participation of the group of trainers (in alphabetical order): Sapfo Alfantaki, Achilleas Attilakos, Flora Bacopoulou, Maria Christaki, Katerina Haidopoulou, Maria Kyriazi, Sophia Leventeli, Alexander Makis, Elpidoforos Mantadakis, Elizabeth Michailidou, Chryssoula Perdikogianni, Panagiota Pervanidou, Nikolaos Skenteris, Maria Stamou, Antonis Theodorakopoulos, Stavros Thomaidis, Despoina Tramma, Ekaterini Tzintziova, and Maria Zaharioudaki.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 2nd Department of Pediatrics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Thivon & Levadeias, Goudi, 11527, Athens, Greece

    Alexandra Soldatou, Alexander Panos, Bilio Paouri, Panagiotis Krepis & Maria Tsolia

  2. ELIZA, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Ermou & Christopoulou 2, 10563, Athens, Greece

    Aphrodite Stathi & Electra Koutsoukou

  3. Department of Pediatrics, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, One Medical Center Drive, Lebanon, NH, 03756, USA

    Resmiye Oral

  4. Department of Pediatrics, Yale School of Medicine, 333 Cedar St, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA

    John M. Leventhal

Authors
  1. Alexandra Soldatou
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  2. Aphrodite Stathi
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  3. Alexander Panos
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  4. Bilio Paouri
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  5. Electra Koutsoukou
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  6. Panagiotis Krepis
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  7. Maria Tsolia
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  8. Resmiye Oral
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  9. John M. Leventhal
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Contributions

A. S.: conception and design; data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation; drafting, critical revision, and approval of article; accountability agreement. Af. S.: conception and design; data acquisition, critical revision, and approval of article; accountability agreement. A. P.: data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation; drafting, critical revision, and approval of article; accountability agreement. B. P.: data acquisition; drafting, critical revision, and approval of article; accountability agreement. E.K.: data acquisition; critical revision, and approval of article; accountability agreement. P. K.: data acquisition and analysis; critical revision and approval of article; accountability agreement. M. T.: conception and design; data acquisition; critical revision and approval of article; accountability agreement. R. O.: conception and design; data acquisition and interpretation; critical revision and approval of article; accountability agreement. J. M. L.: conception and design; data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation; drafting, critical revision, and approval of article; accountability agreement.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexandra Soldatou.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Communicated by Gregorio Paolo Milani

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Soldatou, A., Stathi, A., Panos, A. et al. A national educational campaign to raise awareness of child physical abuse among health care professionals. Eur J Pediatr 179, 1395–1402 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-020-03625-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-020-03625-4

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