Pediatric Education and Advocacy Kit (PEAK): Child Abuse

PEAK Child Abuse

It is estimated that one in four children in the United States are abused or neglected, and 18% of these children experience physical abuse (HHS, 2023). In the fiscal federal year 2021, 66.2% of child deaths from abuse or neglect were in children less than three years of age with 45.6% of child deaths occurring in children less than one year.  

In 2018, one-third of all emergency department visits were from children under 15 years old (Cairns, et al., 2018).  Knowing that child physical abuse is known to be under-detected and under-reported by medical clinicians (Riney, et al., 2018), PEAK: Child Abuse was developed to provide resources for hospital and prehospital-based practitioners, in partnership with patients and families, to support children and youth with suspected physical abuse.

Last updated October 2023


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