Lack of Insurance Raises Abused Babies' Death Risk

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
Monday, October 13, 2008; 10:00 AM

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MONDAY, Oct. 13 (HealthDay News) - Infant victims of abuse whose families don't have private health insurance are almost four times more likely to die, compared with abused babies who are privately insured, a new study finds.

In addition, abused infants from poor families are 3.5 to almost seven times more likely to die compared with babies from affluent families, according to the report, which was to be presented over the weekend at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in Boston.

"Children less than a year old who suffer physical abuse have a high mortality," noted lead researcher Dr. Richard Falcone, associate director of trauma services at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "But the really disturbing problem was that those children who did not have private insurance, or children from low-income families, had even worse outcomes," he said.

Children admitted to hospitals or trauma centers for such injuries have a mortality rate of about 8 percent, "which is much higher than mortality rates from other injuries, which are closer to about 1 percent," Falcone said.

"This is a disturbing and unacceptable difference in outcomes," Falcone added. "We need to ensure that all children are receiving equal access and equal care, so they can have the best potential outcomes."

For the study, Falcone's team collected data on 867 infants under 12 months of age, who were admitted to hospitals for injuries caused by abuse.

The researchers found that, overall, 8.8 percent of these children died. However, infants without private health insurance were 3.8 times more likely to die compared with infants who were privately insured.

"This was true, despite our efforts to control for how severely injured those children were," Falcone noted. The association remained even after race was taken into account, the researchers found.

The reasons for this association are unclear, Falcone said. "It's a complicated problem. Maybe these babies are less healthy, less able to respond to these unfortunate injuries. That may be related to lack of prenatal care, difficulty getting access to early childhood care because of lack of insurance or economic strains," he said.