Child abuse and neglect

In 2018, 2.2% of the total disease burden in Australia was due to child abuse and neglect.

These estimates reflect the amount of burden that could have been avoided if all people in Australia were not exposed to child abuse & neglect.

This estimate attributes the mental health and injury outcomes experienced at all ages attributable to exposure during childhood. Child abuse & neglect were causally linked to anxiety disorders, depressive disorders and suicide & self-inflicted injuries (see ABDS 2018 Risk factor estimates data table).

How much burden was attributable to child abuse and neglect?

Child abuse & neglect was responsible for 27% of the total disease burden due to anxiety disorders, 26% of suicide & self-inflicted injuries burden, and 20% of depressive disorders burden.

 

This interactive data visualisation shows the burden attributable to child abuse by linked disease. The main section shows a horizontal bar graph which can be customised to report data according to year, sex and measure of attributable burden. Each bar represents the attributable burden of the disease linked to child abuse.

How did burden attributable to child abuse and neglect vary by age and sex?

Burden due to child abuse & neglect estimates the mental health and injury outcomes experienced at all ages attributable to exposure during childhood.

The majority of the total burden due to child abuse & neglect was experienced in those aged 15–54 years, peaking for those aged 25–34 years.

Of the burden due to child abuse & neglect, most was from suicide & self-inflicted injuries in males and anxiety disorders in females.

This interactive data visualisation shows the amount of burden attributable to child abuse by age group and linked disease. The main section shows a stacked bar graph which can be customised to report data according to year, sex and measure of attributable burden. Each bar represents the attributable burden within a particular age group. Each bar is also split into separate components with each colour representing a disease linked to child abuse.

How has disease burden due to child abuse and neglect changed over time?

The rate of total burden due to child abuse & neglect (from all linked diseases) increased by 3.6% between 2003 and 2018 (from 4.2 DALY to 4.4 DALY per 1,000 population). This increase was only due to changes in the linked disease burden. The same exposure to child abuse & neglect was applied for all 4 years due to lack of suitable data.

This interactive data visualisation shows the rate of burden attributable to child abuse by year. The main section shows a horizontal bar graph which can be customised to report data according to year, sex and measure of attributable burden. Each bar represents the attributable burden within a particular year due to child abuse.

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