Duane Betournay, DCFS executive director, said Utah may have half the national rate of abuse, but the severity of the incidents and time of abuse are about the same.

"Prevalence of neglect and abuse in general mirrors the rest of the country and is staying about even here," Betournay said. "A difference that is noticeable here and nationwide is the apparent increase in the seriousness of the abuse."

He said last year's data regarding the seriousness of cases are still being compiled, "but what we're hearing from area emergency rooms and from what our caseworkers are finding, it's getting a lot worse."

Other indicators, such as the KIDS COUNT annual report, are showing that alcohol and drug use, a lack of two-parent households, and rising financial stress are all increasing the risk factors for children of all ages, "and making this most vulnerable group even more so."

In the CDC study, medical professionals identified about 65 percent of the maltreated newborns to protective services staff. The others came from law enforcement, relatives, friends, neighbors and from protective services staff.

The neglect cases were based medical professionals concluding that a child got sick or didn't correctly develop because parents didn't obtain recommended medical care for their child.

Those cases were not necessarily life-threatening, noted David Finkelhor, who directs the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.

Finkelhor said the cases might in part reflect families who don't have adequate health insurance. The study's authors said they don't have information to verify that theory.

Both Finkelhor and Dubowitz have worked with the same database the researchers used. But Dubowitz pointed to data showing that most of the neglect cases in newborns were reported in the first two days of life.

That is a time when results from blood tests of mother and child come back and are often shared with protective services. Such tests would indicate whether the mother was abusing drugs.

However, Dubowitz said data on potential explanations behind neglect cases is skimpy, so it is difficult to draw conclusions.

But more prenatal care and drug treatment services would seem like a wise way to address the problem, he added.

The study didn't include data on fatal abuse and neglect. But federal officials said about 500 infants under age 1 died of abuse or neglect during the study period.

The CDC collaborated on the study with the federal Administration for Children and Families. The research was published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

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E-mail: jthalman@desnews.com