487 Age and sex-related circumstances of child sexual assault suspects assisted at maputo central hospital forensic unity_Mozambique

<h3>Background</h3> Circumstances of child sexual abuse (CSA) have been identified as an important knowledge tool to address interventions for prevention Worldwide. Despite CSA is described as reason of great concern and has been broadly investigated in high income countries, the scenario in Low-income countries, in Africa, particularly, remains underreported and consequently underdiagnosed. <h3>Objective</h3> The overarching aim of this study is to investigate the occurrence and circumstances of CSA in victims assisted at the Forensic Service of the Maputo Central Hospital, Mozambique from 2015 to 2020. <h3>Methods</h3> A cross-sectional, quantitative study was conducted using secondary data spanning six years (2015 to 2020) that were extracted from the medico-legal reports of the Forensic Service of Hospital Central de Maputo in Mozambique of all suspects under 18 years old. Data was retrieved for a excel sheet, anonimysed and converted and analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 28.0 version. <h3>Results</h3> The findings of this study revealed that from the 2588 cases observed, the majority were girls (93.7%) in the 12–17 years age group (48.6%). Assaults occurred predominantly in public spaces during weekdays in the afternoon and evening perpetrated by one individual known to the child. 54.1% of children, presented concurrently with physical violence and few perpetrators used condom during the assault (8.5%). <h3>Conclusions</h3> The study results highlighted the necessity of prevention measures directed to adolescent girls and younger boys to increase the reporting and early prevention of health and mental complications.