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The Infant Injury Database: A Tool for the Study of Injury Patterns in Medicolegal Investigations of Child Abuse
Author(s) -
Soto Martinez Miriam E.,
Love Jennifer C.,
Pinto Deborrah C.,
Wiersema Jason M.,
Derrick Sharon M.,
Bachim Angela,
Greeley Christopher,
DonarumaKwoh Marcella,
Truong Van Thi Thanh,
Gao Si,
Crowder Christian M.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/1556-4029.14120
Subject(s) - medicine , injury prevention , poison control , cause of death , forensic science , medical examiner , medical emergency , database , pathology , computer science , disease , veterinary medicine
In 2012, the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences began prospectively collecting injury data from pediatric autopsies. These data and associated case information from 635 pediatric cases are archived in the Infant Injury Database ( IID ). This paper introduces the IID to the forensic community and demonstrates its potential utility for child abuse and infant fatality investigations. The database is intended to be a source of evidence‐based research for coroners/medical examiners and clinicians in the recognition and diagnosis of child abuse. RR estimates were employed to quantify the relationship between individual autopsy findings to trauma‐related and nontrauma‐related causes of death. For example, unsurprisingly, the RR of trauma cases with multiple injury types is significantly greater than other causes of death, but the RR results provide a quantitative representation of the relationship. ROC curve modeling of the presence/absence of various injury types performed well at discriminating trauma from other causes of death ( AUC = 0.96).