Conhecimento de profissionais de saúde sobre a violência doméstica contra a criança

Abstract

The violence in childhood and adolescence is a serious social and public health problem. Well targeted and sensitized health professionals are critical to the timely identification of cases of violence against children. This study aimed to develop and validate an instrument to verify the knowledge of domestic violence against children in the practice of health professionals and assess the knowledge of professionals in the Family Health Strategy in relation to domestic violence against children. This is a descriptive, analytical and quantitative study. The drafting process and instrument validation began in September 2013, the data collection was performed entres the months from April to July 2014 through instrument application to 194 medical professionals, nurses and dentists working in the Health Strategy Montes family Claros, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The validation process followed the steps: identification of dimensions related to domestic violence against children; face and content validation; construct validity and criterion validation. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 19. IBM Software For construct validation evaluated the Cronbach alpha coefficient and the Kappa test program was used to verify the reproducibility. The criterion validation was conducted using the Student t test. The final instrument presented 56 items, Cronbach alpha was 0.734, Kappa test showed higher correlation to 0.6 for most items and the Student t test showed a statistically significant value to the level of 5%. Professional FHS 64.4% had satisfactory knowledge regarding domestic violence against children. The instrument presented is valid and, therefore, can be used as a promising tool to develop or direct the actions in public health and evaluation of knowledge about domestic violence against children. High number of professionals had little knowledge, then it appears the need for broader inclusion on the subject in vocational training.