TY - JOUR
TI - The prevalence, severity and chronicity of abuse towards older men:
Insights from a multinational European survey
AU - Melchiorre, Maria Gabriella
AU - Di Rosa, Mirko
AU - Macassa, Gloria and
AU - Eslami, Bahareh
AU - Torres-Gonzales, Francisco
AU - Stankunas, Mindaugas
AU - and Lindert, Jutta
AU - Ioannidi-Kapolou, Elisabeth
AU - Barros, Henrique
AU - and Lamura, Giovanni
AU - Soares, Joaquim J. F.
JO - PLOS ONE
PY - 2021
VL - 16
TODO - 4
SP - null
PB - Public Library of Science
SN - null
TODO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0250039
TODO - null
TODO - Background
Elder abuse is a growing public health question among policy makers and
practitioners in many countries. Research findings usually indicate
women as victims, whereas male elder abuse still remains under-detected
and under-reported. We aimed to investigate the prevalence, severity and
chronicity of abuse (psychological, physical, physical injury, sexual,
and financial) against older men, and to scrutinize factors (e.g.
demographics) associated with high chronicity of any abuse.
Methods
Randomly selected older men (n = 1908) aged 60-84 years from seven
European cities (Ancona, Athens, Granada, Kaunas, Stuttgart, Porto,
Stockholm) were interviewed in 2009 via a cross-sectional study
concerning abuse exposure during the past 12 months.
Results
Findings suggested that prevalence of abuse towards older men varied
between 0.3% (sexual) and 20.3% (psychological), with severe acts
between 0.2% (sexual) and 8.2% (psychological). On the whole, higher
chronicity values were for injury, followed by psychological, financial,
physical, and sexual abuse. Being from Sweden, experiencing anxiety and
having a spouse/cohabitant/woman as perpetrator were associated with a
greater “risk” for high chronicity of any abuse. For men, severity
and chronicity of abuse were in some cases relatively high.
Conclusions
Abuse towards older men, in the light of severe and repeated acts
occurring, should be a source of concern for family, caring staff,
social work practice and policy makers, in order to develop together
adequate prevention and treatment strategies.
ER -