Domestic Sex Trafficking of Minors: Medical Student and Physician Awareness

The aim was to assess: (1) medical trainee and practicing physician awareness about domestic sex trafficking of minors; and (2) whether respondents believe that awareness of trafficking is important to their practice.

Data were analyzed for correlations between study cohort characteristics and: (1) agreement with the statement: "knowing about sex trafficking in my state is important to my profession"; (2) knowledge of national statistics regarding the sex trafficking of minors; and (3) knowledge of appropriate responses to encountering a trafficked victim.

More practicing physicians than residents or medical students: (1) agreed or strongly agreed that knowledge about human trafficking was important to their practice (80.6%, 71.1%, and 69.2%, respectively); (2) correctly estimated the number of US trafficked youth according to the US Department of State data (16.1%, 11.7%, and 7.9%); and (3) were more likely to report an appropriate response to a trafficked victim (40.4%, 20.4%, and 8.9%, respectively).

Although most medical trainees and physicians place importance on knowing about human trafficking, they lack knowledge about the scope of the problem, and most would not know where to turn if they encountered a trafficking victim. There exists a need for standardized trafficking education for physicians, residents, and medical students.

Via:  http://ht.ly/S1DHu

By: Titchen KE1, Loo D2, Berdan E3, Rysavy MB4, Ng JJ5, Sharif I6.

• 1Division of General Pediatrics, Nemours/A.I. duPont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, Delaware; Department of Pediatrics, Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Electronic address: ktitchen@nemours.org.
• 2Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
• 3Department of Surgery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• 4Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, Wisconsin.
• 5San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California.
• 6Division of General Pediatrics, Nemours/A.I. duPont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, Delaware; Department of Pediatrics, Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.