Understanding risk and protective factors for child maltreatment: the value of integrated, population-based data.

In this article, we argue for expanded efforts to integrate administrative data systems as a "practical strategy" for developing a richer understanding of child abuse and neglect. Although the study of child maltreatment is often critiqued for being atheoretical, we believe that a more pressing concern is the absence of population-based and prospective epidemiological data that can be used to better understand the distribution and interacting nature of risk and protective factors for maltreatment. We begin by briefly addressing the relevance of empirical observations to etiological theories of child maltreatment.

Repeat self-harm: application of hurdle models.

Among those who present to the emergency department for self-harm, many will repeat. Self-harm repetition is an outcome of interest in both observational and intervention studies. However, few such studies analyse the number of repeat self-harm presentations.

Identifying deliberate self-harm in emergency department data.

Background: Emergency department data offer more representative deliberate self-harm (DSH) information than inpatient admission data. However, emergency department data may underestimate DSH if some records coded "undetermined" (UD) represent DSH.

Data And Methods: The data are from the National Ambulatory Care Reporting System.