Prevalence and Correlates of Emotional, Physical, Sexual, and Financial Abuse and Potential Neglect in the United States: The National Elder Mistreatment Study

• Published in: American journal of public health (1971) Vol. 100; no. 2; pp. 292 - 297
• Main Authors: Acierno, Ron, Hernandez, Melba A, Amstadter, Ananda B, Resnick, Heidi S, Steve, Kenneth, Muzzy, Wendy, Kilpatrick, Dean G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC Am Public Health Assoc 01-02-2010; American Public Health Association
• Subjects: Activities of daily living; Age; Aged; Biological and medical sciences; Cross-Sectional Studies; Elder Abuse - prevention & control; Elder Abuse - psychology; Elder Abuse - statistics & numerical data; Emotional abuse; Female; Humans; Interviews; Logistic Models; Male; Medical sciences; Methods; Middle Aged; Minority & ethnic groups; Miscellaneous; Multivariate Analysis; Older people; Polls & surveys; Prevalence; Public health; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Regression analysis; Research and Practice; Risk Factors; Sex crimes; Sexual abuse; Social services; Social Support; Socioeconomic Factors; Studies; United States; Variables; United States; North America; America; Human; Affect affectivity; Elderly abuse; Prevalence; Aggression; Violence; Financing; Neglect; Sexual abuse; Emotion emotionality; Victimology; Public health
• ISSN: 0090-0036; 1541-0048
• DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.163089

We estimated prevalence and assessed correlates of emotional, physical, sexual, and financial mistreatment and potential neglect (defined as an identified need for assistance that no one was actively addressing) of adults aged 60 years or older in a randomly selected national sample.
We compiled a representative sample by random digit dialing across geographic strata. We used computer-assisted telephone interviewing to standardize collection of demographic, risk factor, and mistreatment data. We subjected prevalence estimates and mistreatment correlates to logistic regression.
We analyzed data from 5777 respondents. One-year prevalence was 4.6% for emotional abuse, 1.6% for physical abuse, 0.6% for sexual abuse, 5.1% for potential neglect, and 5.2% for current financial abuse by a family member. One in 10 respondents reported emotional, physical, or sexual mistreatment or potential neglect in the past year. The most consistent correlates of mistreatment across abuse types were low social support and previous traumatic event exposure.
Our data showed that abuse of the elderly is prevalent. Addressing low social support with preventive interventions could have significant public health implications.