Incidence of high-risk families in a big city: Results from a study in Milan

Nowadays, the problem of child abuse and neglect is gaining more and more attention in Italy. It is necessacy to promote prevention activities aimed at detecting at risk families at an early moment. The authors present the results of a study done over the area covered by the Health Welfare District 75/III in Milano. Here, a group of public health nurses working at the Pediatric Advisory Bureaus home-visited all families with newborns over a period of one year. The socio-sanitary risk for every family has been assessed by checking the presence of risk indicators (biological, psychological, social and interactional risk indicators). This study allowed to estimate the number of at-risk families living in the area of the health welfare district 75/III and over the whole city of Milano