Dear Sir,
We are writing in reference to the open access article published on your journal website; titled “Child maltreatment between knowledge, attitude and beliefs among Saudi pediatricians, pediatric residency trainees and medical student.” (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/20490801/16).
We would like first to congratulate the authors for their well-written article, addressing this important Pediatric health issue.
As senior pediatric emergency physician working in Saudi Arabia for many years, together with colleagues working regularly with suspected child abuse and neglect cases, so we hold a special interest in CAN, besides being a member of the Child Protective Team at our institution where the mentioned study was conducted. On the basis of our knowledge and experience dealing with patients of Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN) in our community, we would like to highlight the following points regarding the above-mentioned article that the authors should have mentioned as limitations in their discussions and conclusion, namely:
-
1
The authors' chosen study-population was much skewed towards junior trainees and medical students, as compared to pediatric health care providers or SCAN team members. Of note, medical students do not get involved directly with suspected CAN cases, as these patients are treated with utmost confidentiality. Therefore; the inferences drawn from the study may not necessarily be representative of actual practice patterns of pediatricians in scenarios of CAN in this community.
-
2
Sample size is too small to draw conclusions about
-
3
The respondents represent only one medical institution.
-
4
Most of the questions asked to the responders were opinion based, which may again not be in line with factual information.
-
5
The study title, therefore, is inaccurate; as it is a questionnaire from a single center, filled mainly by the medical students.
-
6
The question about adequacy of CAN training during pediatric residency training directed to medical students would be an example of one such question, that does not apply to the medical students.
-
7
CAN training is part of the medical curriculum of the medical college students in Saudi Arabia, especially in the final medical years, but the replying students in the study may have not encountered this training in their student's training yet.
CAN is a universally prevalent social issues which needs to be recognized, reported and addressed. More research studies and publications from this part of the world is the need of the hour. However, publications need to address the issues with solid data and accurate results, rather than personal opinions, especially when addressing such medico-legal, sensitive topics.
Regards,
Mohamad Al-Othman, MD,
Head, Child Protection Team,
King Saud University Medical City,
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Ethical approval
Letter to Editor
Sources of funding
Nothing to declare.
Author contribution
All authors contributed writing the commentary to the Editor
Conflicts of interest
Nothing to declare.
Registration unique identifying number
Nothing to declare.
Guarantor
Dr Mohamad Al-Osman.
Contributor Information
Mohamad Al-Othman, Email: drmaothman@hotmail.com.
Mohamad-Hani Temsah, Email: mtemsah@ksu.edu.sa.
Fatima Al-Haidar, Email: fhaidar@ksu.edu.sa.