Child Abuse and Neglect Epidemiology in Secondary School Students of Yazd Province, Iran

BACKGROUND Child abuse is an issue that has many physical and psychological consequences. OBJECTIVES This study was designed and conducted to investigate the current situation regarding child abuse, which can be used as a guideline for planning future interventions. MATERIALS AND METHODS This was a descriptive, analytic cross-sectional study on 700 Yazd secondary school students in 2013, using a standardized self-administered questionnaire. The collected data was analyzed using the SPSS v.19 software and appropriate statistical tests and logistic regression analysis. P values of < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS Overall, 700 students (43%) were boys. Child abuse frequency was 93.5% (92.2% of boys and 94.4% of girls). The most common domains of child abuse among all students were neglect (83.8%), psychological (76.1%), physical (36.1%) and sexual (28.8 %), respectively. The most common domains of child abuse among female students were neglect (84.9%), psychological (82.3%), physical (32.5%) and sexual (31.5 %), and among male students, these were neglect (82.3%), psychological (67.9%), physical (41%) and sexual (25.3%). Demographic variables included substance abuse of parents, father's education, parents living status and having other jobs, which were significantly related variables to child abuse and neglect (P value < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Our study is the first investigation performed on patients with LCH and its possible association with EBV in Iran. Considering the P = 0.004, which is statistically significant, the findings do support the hypothesis of a possible role for EBV in the pathogenesis of LCH. These results are in accordance with several previous investigations, with positive findings.