Background: Frequency of emergency department (ED) attendance has long been thought to be a risk factor for child abuse. The aim of this study was to test this assumption by comparing the ED attendances of at-risk children (before being placed on a child protection register) with the attendances of an age-matched control group (before an index attendance) Method: A group of 220 children (aged 0-12 years inclusive) were identified from the two child protection registers in the Shropshire area in 2006. The ED attendances of these children in the 2 years before registration were identified using the computer records of the two local EDs. A control group of 150 children for each year of age (0-12 years inclusive) was then identified from ED attendances between October and December 2006. The attendances of these children in the 2 years before this index attendance were obtained. The data for these two groups of children were then compared.
Results: The at-risk children did not attend the EDs more frequently than did the children in the control group.
Conclusion: The identification of children who attend EDs frequently may be useful for other reasons but is unlikely to be an effective way to detect child abuse.