Advancing public health surveillance to estimate child maltreatment fatalities: review and recommendations.

Abstract

Fatal child maltreatment is a compelling problem in the United States. National estimates of fatal child maltreatment, based largely on child welfare data, have fluctuated around 1,500 deaths annually for the past ten years. However, the limitations of child welfare and other mortality data to accurately enumerate fatal child maltreatment are well documented. As a result of these limitations, the true magnitude of fatal child maltreatment remains unknown. Public health surveillance has been proposed as a mechanism to improve estimation of fatal child maltreatment, as well as to collect and analyze relevant risk factor data for the ultimate goal of developing prevention strategies. This paper describes public health surveillance efforts undertaken to improve estimation of fatal child maltreatment, and presents the unique challenges of identifying fatal child neglect. The strengths and limitations of existing sources of child maltreatment fatality data are reviewed and broad recommendations for strategies to advance public health surveillance of fatal child maltreatment are presented.