Child Maltreatment Risk in Georgia

These maps provide initial cartographic visualization of the risk of child maltreatment in Georgia. The goal is to identify subcounty geographic areas with high levels of risk to make more efficient use of resources by targeting these areas for prevention programs.

The method of analysis used is based on the work of researchers in a Florida study (Wu et al. [2004]). The researchers found that a number of perinatal and sociodemographic factors are significantly related to infant maltreatment, with five of these factors having adjusted relative risks of two or greater. These five factors are (1) mother smoked during pregnancy, (2) more than two siblings, (3) unmarried status, (4) low birth weight infant, and (5) Medicaid beneficiary. This data is available to the Georgia Department of Human Resources/Division of Public Health (DPH) for each registered birth. Medicaid data was obtained from the Department of Community Health and linked to birth records by the Maternal/Child Health Epidemiology section of DPH. All birth records for the years 2000 and 2001 were processed to create Boolean fields, 1 meaning present and 0 meaning not present, for each risk factor. The Boolean fields for each record were summed to produce a risk composite value, ranging from 0 (no risk factors present) to 5 (all risk factors present).

The choropleth map depicts analysis at the tract level and uses Jenks optimization for classification. The Extremely High Risk map shows the percentage of records for each tract that have a risk composite value of 4 or 5. Infants of extremely high risk have a maltreatment rate seven times the population average in the Florida study.

The Risk Density map addresses the actual number of children at risk by incorporating population density. In the Density function of ArcGIS Spatial Analyst, points representing the geocoded residence for each record were weighted by the risk composite value. The output looks quite different from the choropleth map because of the large numbers of children in urban areas such as Atlanta, Savannah, and Columbus.

These maps show that portions of some counties, including Telfair, Screven, and Baker, among others in the southern part of the state and portions of Fulton and DeKalb in the north, may benefit from targeted prevention programs. They also help enable evidence-based allocation decisions of state- or federal-run programs or funds. Examining the data in multiple views and formats is essential to aid in a complete understanding of the issue. Further analysis will be necessary to provide the best targeted service with regard to child maltreatment risk.

Reference

Wu, S.S., C. Ma, R.L. Carter, M. Ariet, J. Roth, E.A. Feaver, and M.B. Resnick, 2004, "Risk Factors for Infant Maltreatment: A Population-Based Study," Child Abuse and Neglect, Volume 28, Issue 12, pp. 1253–1264.

Acknowledgments

B.J. Walker, Commissioner, Department of Human Resources
Stuart Brown, M.D., Acting Director, Division of Public Health