The relationship between elder abuse by family and demographic characteristics among the elderly admitted to the Educational hospitals

Elder abuse causes complications such as injury or physical pain, violation of human rights and reduced quality of life in the elderly. Despite the importance of the issue, there is still insufficient information in assessing risk factors for elder abuse. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between elder abuse by family and demographic characteristics of the elderly hospitalized in Guilan University of Medical Sciences.

This descriptive-analytical study was performed with the participation of 132 hospitalized elderly who met the inclusion criteria. Stratified sampling was done. Data collection tool was "Elder Abuse in the family "questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS 16 using descriptive statistics and Spearman correlation coefficient.

Among the dimensions of the elder abuse, the caring neglect subscale with the mean of 13.06 (±1.87) and the emotional neglect subscale with the mean of 3.48 (±0.64) had the lowest share in the elder abuse by family. The findings also showed that there was a significant correlation between the caring neglect, psychological abuse, physical abuse, financial abuse, deprivation, financial neglect and emotional neglect subscales with some demographic characteristics of the elderly (P<0.05). There was no significant correlation between the abandonment subscale and demographic characteristics of the elderly (P <0.05).

The results indicate that there is a relationship between different dimensions of elder abuse with demographic characteristics of the elderly and this group is exposed to various types of abuse. It is suggested that appropriate plans be taken by the relevant authorities to prevent and eliminate elder abuse.