Physical child abuse means injury to the child either by acts of commission (abuse, ie, inflicted injury as opposed to an accidental injury) or omission (neglect). Physical abuse can occur in children of any age but has a mean age of 6 years. Per the Administration for Children and Families (US Department of Health and Human Services), a national estimate of 1820 children died from abuse and neglect in 2021 at a rate of 2.46 per 100 000 children in the population. Younger children are the most vulnerable to death as the result of child abuse and neglect. Data show that in 2021, 66.2 percent of child fatalities were younger than 3 years and close to one-half (45.6%) of child fatalities were younger than 1 year.

Abuse can occur by hitting, whipping, biting, kicking, choking, shaking, burning, or any physical means.

Population risk factors that have been identified to increase the potential for abuse may include young parents, children with special health care needs or developmental disorders, substance use or mental health issues in the home, and poverty.*

*Note: Risk factors are population risk factors and should never be relied on to decide who to further evaluate, who to report, when to worry about abuse, etc. Doing so may result in misdiagnosis and delay to diagnosis. The facts of the specific case are far more important than profiling who is at risk.

Related topics: bruise of child abuse, pediatric abusive head trauma, child sexual abuse