Selected perinatal factors and child abuse.

Perinatal Factors Associated with Infant Maltreatment

“…poverty (7,10,15,16), having other siblings (10,16), poor social support (10,17), and child factors (e.g. low birth weight (LBW) (11,16,18,19), childhood medical disorders and developmental delays (19)(20)(21)). …”

Prematurity and neonatal comorbidities as risk factors for nonaccidental trauma

“…Though authors did demonstrate a significantly increased risk of low birth weight and short gestational age among abuse victims, their control group was not comprised of similar trauma victims, but of random patients selected from state birth certificates. Furthermore, there were no attempts to control for other confounding factors [15]. Another study from 1971 found that the prevalence of low birth weight among 51 patients with NAT was lower than the expected prevalence in the population as a whole.…”

Cutaneous signs of child abuse

“…4 Prematurity may be a risk factor for child abuse. 10 The most common perpetrators of child abuse are, in descending order of frequency, fathers, mothers' boyfriends, female babysitters, and mothers. Parents are the perpetrators in 77% of child fatalities.…”