Elder abuse: Screening in Iranian families

The rate of elder abuse has been increasing worldwide. This study aimed at identifying the group of elders susceptible to abuse and determining the influential factors of elder abuse.

A total of 683 elders, living in rural and urban areas of Qazvin (Iran), participated in this cross- sectional study that was conducted during September to December 2015. They were selected by stratified multistage random sampling method and filled in a standard questionnaire (H-S/EAST). Multiple logistic regression models were used for data analysis in Microsoft SPSS v.18. Type 1 error was considered equal to 0.05.

The average age of participants was 68.5±7.6. Also, the prevalence of elder abuse in this study was 38.5 (95% CI: 3.34-42.3). After eliminating the confounders and applying multiple regression analysis, we found a significant association between elder abuse and factors such as education level (OR= 2.003, 95% CI: 1.177-3.409), residence (OR= 3.53, 95% CI: 1.969-6.324), and age (OR= 0.963, 95% CI: 0.931-0.995).

The results of this study indicated a high prevalence of elder abuse in the studied population. By identifying high-risk individuals for elder abuse and planning to improve their quality of life, we will be able to successfully overcome this issue.