Paediatric femur fractures-the value of contextual information on judgement in possible child abuse cases: are we bias?

ABSTRACT: The majority of paediatric femur fractures result from accidental trauma; however, it is important to consider non-accidental trauma, especially in pre-ambulatory children. We study whether irrelevant contextual information subconsciously influences conclusions of healthcare professionals with respect to whether observations provide evidence for non-accidental trauma. A survey with nine radiographs of femur shaft fractures was designed. Two different clinical histories (vignettes) with contextual information were designed, non-abuse versus abuse context. One of both vignettes was randomly assigned to the radiograph shown to the participant, followed by a question with a 5-point answer scale, which represents a verbal expression of the likelihood ratio of the fracture regarding a non-accidental versus accidental cause. Participants were medical residents and staff members of different specialties from several Dutch hospitals. A total of 172 participants responded. The reported evidential strength of the vignettes with a non-abuse context was 0.19 (n?=?784; 95%CI 0.10-0.28) and for the abuse context 0.94 (n?=?764; 95%CI 0.86-1.02; p?

SUBMITTER: Loos MHJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7782380 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature