The status of primary care physicians recognizing the signs and risks of child abuse and neglect

The Status of Primary Care Physicians Recognizing the Signs and Risks of Child Abuse and Neglect Introduction: The World Health Organization (WHO) defines child abuse as "behaviors that occur intentionally or unintentionally through an adult and that adversely affect the child's health, physical, psychological and social development". Due to the continuity of primary health care services, primary care physicians and other employees have a great role in recognizing child abuse and neglect and assessing the risk. In our study, it was aimed to evaluate primary care physicians' recognition of the symptoms and risks of child abuse and neglect, their level of knowledge about the subject, and their relationship with sociodemographic data. Materials and Methods: Our descriptive cross-sectional study includes family physicians, family medicine residents and family medicine specialists in seven provinces selected from seven geographical regions by simple random method. Between July 2020 and December 2020, the "Information Form", which includes questions about demographic characteristics and education and professional experience related to child abuse, and the "Scale Form for Diagnosing the Symptoms and Risks of Child Abuse and Neglect" were applied online. Results: 145 (63.9%) of the physicians received training on child abuse and neglect before graduation and 80 (35.2%) after graduation. When the ÇİİBRTYÖ scores of the participants were compared according to their status of receiving education on child abuse and neglect before graduation, all general and subscale scores were found to be statistically significantly higher in the group who received the training compared to the group who did not (p<0.05). 195 of the physicians (85.9%) do not consider themselves to have sufficient knowledge about child abuse. Conclusion: It is seen that physicians have insufficient level of knowledge and awareness in some areas about child abuse and neglect. The subject of child abuse and neglect should be explained to prospective physician students through in-service training programs to be organized for physicians working in the field during and after medical education, and the level of knowledge and awareness on this subject should be kept at a high level.