In a review conducted for the USPSTF, researchers from Oregon Health & Science University in Portland analyzed 10 studies of child abuse prevention programs involving home visitors in the U.S., UK and New Zealand and one intervention done in a Baltimore clinic.

Those studies included families at higher risk of child abuse based on responses to questionnaires or referrals from midwives and nurses.

For the one intervention that didn’t involve regular home visits, at-risk families were given materials about child abuse and referred to social workers.

Some of the programs were tied to a drop in Child Protective Services (CPS) family reports and kids’ emergency room visits, according to findings published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

But others found no link to the proportion of kids hospitalized – in general or specifically because of abuse or neglect – or to CPS contact with families.

“It looks like some progress is being made in terms of evaluating early childhood abuse prevention programs,” said Elizabeth Letourneau, who studies child sexual abuse at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and didn’t participate in the new review.

“The country is rightly concerned by reducing any type of abuse, and particularly by programs that address child abuse and neglect across the board,” she added.

There’s a need for more of those evidence-backed programs, Letourneau told Reuters Health, but also to focus on sexual abuse in particular – an area that is especially lacking when it comes to research, she said.

via Limited success for child abuse prevention programs | Reuters.