Economic evaluation of child maltreatment: Is there any place for prevention?

Journal title MALTRATTAMENTO E ABUSO ALL’INFANZIA
Author/s Rosalba Rombaldoni
Publishing Year 2017 Issue 2017/2
Language English Pages 19 P. 11-29 File size 212 KB
DOI 10.3280/MAL2017-002002
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Child Maltreatment (CM) is unfortunately a widespread phenomenon with pervasive and remarkable effects not only on the psychological, social growth of children, but also for the economy, because of a wide range of direct and indirect health costs and productivity losses for the society. The paper intends to offer a review of the existing studies on economic evaluation of CM, quite few and with very differentiated results in terms of used methodology, definition and underestimation of the costs, comparability at international level. Resources are completely absorbed by protective rather than preventive services, and this re-veals a poor attention for economic savings by policy makers. Expanding knowledge on the cost-benefit analysis applied to CM prevention programs is critical in stimulating further research and investment on this front.

Keywords: Child maltreatment, economic evaluation, health costs, benefit-cost analysis.

  1. Bonomi, A. E., Anderson, M. L., Rivara, F. P., Cannon, E. A., Fishman, P. A., & Carrell, D., et al. (2008). Health care utilization and costs associated with childhood abuse. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 23, 3, 294-299,
  2. Camisasca, E., & Miragoli, S. (2014). Stress post-traumatico in esperienze di violenza cronica. Maltrattamento e abuso all’infanzia, 16, 2, 7-11, DOI: 10.3280/MAL2014-002001
  3. CISMAI/Terres des Hommes (2012). Tagliare sui bambini è davvero un risparmio? (disponibile online: http://www.tavolonazionaleaffido.it/files/Giannotta_TDH.pdf).
  4. Corso, P. S., Edwards, V. J., Fang, X., & Mercy, J. A. (2008). Health-related quality of life among adults who experienced maltreatment during childhood. American Journal of Public Health, 98, 6, 1094-1100,
  5. Corso, P., & Fertig, A. (2010). The economic impact of child maltreatment in the United States: Are the estimates credible? Child Abuse & Neglect, 36, 296-304,
  6. Corso, P. S., Mercy, J. A, Simon, T. R, Finkelstein, E. A., & Miller, T. R. (2007). Medical costs and productivity losses due to interpersonal and self-directed violence in the United States. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 32, 6, 474-482,
  7. Crisafi, C., Ragonese, N., & Caretti, V. (2015). Il ruolo del trauma infantile nell’insorgenza del Binge Eating Disorder. Maltrattamento e abuso all’infanzia, 17, 1, 13-30, DOI: 10.3280/MAL2015-001002
  8. Currie, J., & Widom, C. S. (2010). Long-term consequences of child abuse and neglect on adult economic wellbeing. Child Maltreatment, 15, 2, 111-120, DOI: 10.1177/1077559509355316
  9. Dominguez, T. E., Chalom, R., & Costarino, A. T. (2001). The severity and cost of child abuse in the pediatric intensive care unit. Journal of Intensive Care Medicine, 16, 35-41, DOI: 10.1177/088506660101600104
  10. Fang, X., Brown, D. S., Florence, C. S., & Mercy, J. A. (2012). The economic burden of child maltreatment in the United States and implications for prevention. Child Abuse & Neglect, 36, 2, 156-165,
  11. Fang, X., & Corso, P. S. (2007). Child maltreatment, youth violence and intimate partner violence developmental relationship. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 33, 4, 281-290,
  12. Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., Koss, M. P., & Marks J. S. (1998). Relationship of child abuse and household disfunction to many of the leading causes of death of adults: The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14, 4, 245-258, DOI: 10.1016/S0749-3797(98)00017-8
  13. Florence, C. S., Brown, D. S., Fang, X., & Thompson, H. F. (2012). The health care costs associated with child maltreatment: Implications for Medicaid. Pediatrics, 132, 2, 312-318,
  14. Friedman, J., Reed, P., Sharplinc, P., & Kelly, P. (2012). Primary prevention of pediatric abusive head trauma: A cost audit and cost-utility analysis. Child Abuse & Neglect, 36, 11-12, 760-770,
  15. Gelles, R. J., & Perlman, S. (2012). Estimated annual cost of child abuse and neglect. Chicago IL: Prevent Child Abuse America.
  16. Gold, M. R., Siegel, J. E., Russell, L. B., & Weinstein, M. C. (1996). Cost-effectiveness in health and medicine. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
  17. Guarnaccia, C., Infurna, M. R., Cascio, M. L., & Giannone, F. (2015). Dipendenza da sostanze ed esperienze sfavorevoli infantili: uno studio empirico condotto con la Childhood Experiences of Care and Abuse Interview (CECA). Maltrattamento e abuso all’infanzia, 17, 1, 97-120, DOI: 10.3280/MAL2015-001006
  18. Haddix, A. C., Teutsch, S. M., & Corso, P. S. (2003). Prevention effectiveness: A guide to decision analysis and economic evaluation. New York, NY: Oxford University.
  19. Habetha S. (2012). Deutsche Traumafolgekostenstudie – Kein Kind mehr – keine Trauma(kosten) mehr? Kiel: Schmidt & Klaunig.
  20. Holmes, W. C., & Sammel, M. D. (2005). Brief communication: Physical abuse of boys and possible association with poor adult outcomes. Annals of Internal Medicine, 143, 8, 581-586, DOI: 10.7326/0003-4819-143-8-200510180-00008
  21. Jonson-Reid, M., Drake, B., Kim, J., Porterfield, S., & Han, L. (2004). A prospective analysis of the relationship between reported child maltreatment and special education eligibility among poor children. Child Maltreatment, 9, 4, 382-394, DOI: 10.1177/1077559504269192
  22. Leventhal, J. (2005). Getting prevention right: Maintaining the status quo is not an option. Child Abuse & Neglect, 29, 209-213,
  23. Miller, W., Robinson, L., & Lawrence, R.. (2006). Valuing health for regulatory cost-effectiveness analysis. Washington DC: The National Academies Press.
  24. National Commission of Inquiry into the Prevention of Child Abuse (1996). Child-hood matters: Report of the National Commission of Inquiry into the Prevention of Child Abuse. The report on domestic violence. London: The Stationery Office.
  25. Plotnik, R. D., & Deppman, L. (1999). Using benefit-cost analysis to assess child abuse prevention and intervention programs. Child Welfare, 78, 3, 381-407.
  26. Repetti, R. L., Taylor, S. E., & Seeman, T. E. (2002). Risk families: Family social environments and the mental and physical health of offspring. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 2, 330-366, DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.128.2.230
  27. Reynolds, A. J., Temple, J. A., Robertson, D. L., & Mann, E. A. (2002). Age 21 cost-benefit analysis of the title I Chicago child-parent centers. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24, 4, 267-303, DOI: 10.3102/01623737024004267
  28. Sedlak, A. J., Mettenburg, J., Basena, M., Petta, I., McPherson, K., Greene, A., & Li, S. (2010). Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS-4): Report to Congress, Executive Summary. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.
  29. Taylor, T. N., Davis, P. H., Torner, J. C., Holmes, J., Meyer, J. W., Jacobson, M. F. (1996). Lifetime cost of stroke in the United States. Stroke, 27, 1459-1466, DOI: 10.1161/01.STR.27.9.1459
  30. Walby, S. (2004). The cost of domestic violence. London: Department of Trade and Industry, Women and Equality Unit.
  31. Wang, C. T., & Holton, J. (2007). Total estimated cost of child abuse and neglect in the United States. Chicago, IL: Prevent Child Abuse America.
  32. Widom, C. S., & Maxfield, M. G. (2001). An update on the ‘cycle of violence’ research in brief. Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Justice.
  33. WHO (2013). European report on preventing child maltreatment. Copenhagen, Denmark: World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe.
  34. WHO (2014). Global status report on violence prevention. Copenhagen, Denmark: World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe.
  35. Zhuo, X., Zhang, P., & Hoerger, T. (2010). Lifetime cost of type 2 diabetes in the US. Presented at American Diabetes Association Meeting.

  • Child Abuse and Neglect Elena Acquarini, Vittoria Ardino, Rosalba Rombaldoni, (ISBN:978-1-80355-510-2)

Rosalba Rombaldoni, Economic evaluation of child maltreatment: Is there any place for prevention? in "MALTRATTAMENTO E ABUSO ALL’INFANZIA" 2/2017, pp 11-29, DOI: 10.3280/MAL2017-002002