The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) may prevent serious Abusive Head Trauma (AHT)

What is it about?

Analyses of annual rates of states’ hospital admissions attributed to AHT in children under two from 1995-2013 in states with compared to states without an EITC show that a refundable EITC was associated with a decrease of 3.1 per 100,000 AHT admissions in children less than two years of age after controlling for states’ child poverty, unemployment, and high school graduation rates and percent of Non-Latino Whites, but a non-refundable EITC was not.

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Why is it important?

Prevention of AHT has primarily focused on providing parents of newborns with information about infant crying and the dangers of violent infant shaking. Although such efforts initially yielded promising results, subsequent rigorous evaluation failed to show reductions in serious AHT incidence. Compared to educational efforts, policies, such as the EITC, have the potential to reach broader segments of the population with sustainable impact on reducing child maltreatment.