Prevalence of elder abuse in Iran: a systematic review and meta analysis

Abuse of older people is a major issue in societies that can reduce self-confidence, generate feelings of hopelessness and apathy, and cause psychological disability in the elderly. The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of elder abuse in Iran.
Methods & Materials: This study is a systematic review and meta-analysis, in which all articles about elderly abuse in Iran since 2005-2014 were searched using online databases such as MEDLINE, Google Scholar, SID, Web of Science, and Magiran. Their data were collected and analyzed using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (V2.0, Biostat) software.
The highest prevalence (87.8%) of elder abuse was found in Tehran (Manochehry et al, 2007), and the lowest prevalence (17.1%) was found in Shahrekord (Hoseinei et al, 2014). The overall elder abuse prevalence in Iran was 56.4% with confidence interval 95% (35.1-75.5%).
The overall elder abuse prevalence in Iran is much more than that reported by foreign studies. This difference could be related to small sample size and culture variety in the various communities.
The prevalence of elder abuse in Iran is much more than that in the world.