Screening tools for child sexual abuse.

The medical diagnosis of child sexual abuse can be problematic; any opportunity to simplify, strengthen, or streamline the assessment process is desirable. Screening has been defined as the presumptive identification of unrecognized disease or defect by the application of tests, examinations or other procedures which can be carried out rapidly with the goal of sorting out apparently well persons who probably have a disease from those who do not.1 Screening for child sexual abuse is potentially helpful by either identifying victims in general pediatric populations where no concerns have previously arisen or by providing pediatricians with additional information to direct their diagnostic process for children presenting with symptoms of potential sexual abuse. A screening test is itself not intended to be diagnostic, and a national task force in the United States found insufficient evidence to recommend for or against routine screening of parents or guardians for family violence.2