Perinatal Correlates of Shaken Baby Syndrome

Abstract

Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) is a potentially lethal form of child abuse. Primary prevention efforts have been targeted towards educating the general population, especially pregnant women and new parents, about the dangers of shaking. It is hypothesized that there are identifiable perinatal risk fadors for children that make them more at risk for injury from SBS than other forms of Abusive Head Trauma (AHT). All hospitalized children with suspected AHT (n=206) over a 14-year period who were referred to a multidisciplinary child protection center, were identified. The records of 24 children were not included in the study because they were not available for review, the child did not have a primary head injury, or the child was adopted and birth records were not available. Nonaccidental injury was confirmed in 116 of the remaining children. These included 72 (62%) children fitting SBS criteria, and 44 (38%) children identified as having other AHT. Case analysis included review of hospital and multidisciplinary child protection center records. The SBS and AHT groups were compared to separate perinatal risk fadors that might assist in identifying children at increased risk for SBS. Results of the analysis demonstrated that there was no significant difference between groups evident in the perinatal history. These preliminary findings support the follOWing conclusion that in contrast to many published reports, the perinatal information on the child did not provide significant pre-injury risk identifiers. It was concluded that changes in early educational programs and media campaigns are needed to reduce the sequalae of head trauma in infants and children. Programs must focus on AHT in general, rather than only SBS.