Objective:

To describe knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) on child abuse (AC) in dentists from Cartagena (Colombia).

Methods:

Cross-sectional study performed on 149 dentists, second period 2013, an anonymous structured respondent's self-report questionnaire to assess demographic variables, reporting of suspected AC and KAP regarding this. Data were analyzed using frequency and proportions. To establish relationships between suspected AC with some variables of interest (sociodemographic, KAP) the x 2 test was used with a 95 %.

Results:

The current occurrence of cases of suspected CA was 5,3 % and sometime during his practice of 34,4 %. For the level of KAP on average scores of CA 16,8/26, 8,7/12, 2,4/8 they were obtained respectively. By relating the level of knowledge and sociodemographic variables, attitudes and practices, only statistical significance was found for socioeconomic status (p=0,001) and between attitudes to the birthplace (p=0,04) and age(p=0,002).

Conclusions:

The level ofknowledge of CA was low while attitudes were favorable; However, when presented a case of suspected practices are inadequate to stop doing the descriptions of injuries, medical records and reports do case.

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