Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Elder abuse or elder mistreatment is one of the most important problems encountered by the elderly. It includes harms by people the older person knows such as spouse, partner, family members, neighbor or people that older person relies on for services.
OBJECTIVE:
The aim of this study was to determine the abuse to which elder people were exposed and its relation with age, sex, marital status, economic income and education. The study increased awareness and helping families, relatives of the elderly, professionals, social workers, nurses, doctors and counselors about elder abuse.
PATIENTS AND METHODS:
The present cross- sectional study was carried out on 300 elderly patients of age range 60-84 years attending geriatric clinic Baghdad Teaching Hospital from April to August 2019 who answered face to face survey questionnaires to elicit elder abuse.
RESULTS:
This study showed that 66.2% of elderly abused patients experienced more than one type of abuse. Majority of the patients were victims of abandonment abuse (70.3%), followed by financial abuse (25.3%), emotional abuse (21%) neglected (10.3%) and physical abuse (7%). There was a significant relationship between sex, marital status, economic income and education of the elderly and being abused.
CONCLUSION:
Abuse of the elderly is an important social and public health issue. Elderly abused patients experienced more than one type of abuse. There was a significant association with gender, widow, divorced, poor economic income and low level of education.
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