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To assess trends in severe physical abuse of children, researchers examined data from national hospital discharge databases from 1997 to 2009 for children <18 years of age who were hospitalized for serious injuries from physical abuse.
The incidence of children hospitalized for physical abuse increased significantly, by 5% (from 6.1 to 6.4 per 100,000). Among children <1 year of age, incidence increased by 11% (from 56 to 62 per 100,000), and among older children, incidence decreased by 9% (from 3.3 to 3.0 per 100,000). During the same time period, the incidence of children hospitalized for nonabusive injuries decreased by 21%. Although length of stay for abuse did not change, the incidence of resultant deaths increased significantly from 0.…