Methodological Issues in Case-based Surveillance Study of Child Abuse and Neglect Cases in Croatia

Case-based surveillance study present usefull tool to identify research priorities and assists in the evaluation of the uptake of research evidence. The child abuse and neglect surveillance data provide necessary information... [ view full abstract ]

Case-based surveillance study present usefull tool to identify research priorities and assists in the evaluation of the uptake of research evidence. The child abuse and neglect surveillance data provide necessary information to support decision makers in setting priorities for planning, policy development and resource allocation in child protection. The validity and reliability of data should be priority in evidence based practice if we want effectively address the needs of maltreated children. However, the data are often fragmented, biased, not comparable and compatible. This review adress some of the methodological problems and solutions associated with implementation of first nationwide incidence study on child abuse and neglect in the Croatia, relying on data from Centres od Social Welfare. This study was part of Balkan Epidemiological Study on Child Abuse and Neglect, were 8 participating countries applied research similar to Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect which, together with US National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect, presents comprenhensive and methodologically well established case-based surveillance studies. The main research questions are: 1) How to conduct child abuse and neglect surveillance study when files are not organized by child? 2) What is a case and is it appropriate unit of analysis for this type of research? 3) How to ensure probabilistic coverage of population of reported child abuse and neglect cases? and 4) How to adjust research protocols to be suitable for monitoring social services interventions and measuring their outcomes? Although specific in terms of covering Croatian social services system, procedures applied are transferable to other countries with similar social services systems as adoptable solutions. Given recommendations emphazise need for general improvements such as the implementation of standard measure instruments, case definition, and management of data derived from social services databases in order to enhance usefulness of data.