The prevalence of elder abuse in the Porto Alegre metropolitan area

Abstract

Abuse of the elderly is a form of violence to come to the public's attention. Dental professionals are in an ideal position to identify physical abuse. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of elderly abuse and analyze the database of injury reports that can be identified by dental teams. A documentary analysis study developed by the Elderly Protection Police Station of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, was carried out. The information used came from 2,304 complaints filed at the aforementioned institution between the years of 2004 and 2006. The records of abuse are categorized as injury, neglect, mistreatment, theft, financial abuse, threat, disturbing the peace, atypical fact, and others. The injuries that could be identified by the dental team were classified according to the injury's location in the area of the head, face, mouth and neck. Descriptive analysis was performed, and chi-square tests were used to evaluate the distributions of the types of elder abuse in relation to sex and age. The most frequent of the different types of abuse was theft, with a prevalence of 17.8%, followed by disturbing the peace at 11.8%. Disturbing the peace, threat, and bodily injury were significantly associated with women. Elder abuse among women and men declines with age. The prevalence of head injury was 25% of the total injuries, most often in females, and in those aged < 70 years. Based on these results, it is necessary that the dental team observe the elderly person's appearance for suspicious physical signs.

Estudo sobre pessoas idosas vítimas de violência em Portugal: sociografia da ocorrência

“…Dir-se-ia, pois, que, mais do que uma violência associada exclusivamente à idade, estamos perante uma violência conjugal envelhecida 18,19 . Essa última corresponde à violência que se iniciou cedo na vida do casal e que perdura na idade avançada ou àquela que engloba as vivências de violência face a um relacionamento recente.…”

“…Mesmo em estudos com amostras populacionais representativas, observou-se que os grupos etários mais jovens apresentavam uma maior vulnerabilidade face à violência psicológica, física e sexual 5,9,17 . Resultado semelhante foi encontrado no estudo de Santos et al 18 , no qual se verificou que a violência ocorria mais frequentemente nas pessoas com menos de 70 anos.…”

Physical Violence Among Elderly: Analysis of Admissions to an Emergency Department

“…However, though prevalence declined with age, high incidence of injury to head and neck was observed. [8] Martins et al noted primacy of financial abuse before 75 years of age, and physical or emotional abuse and neglect after 75. [22] Though no significance was found between physical violence and age or gender in this study, larger series are needed to investigate these relationships.…”

“…This data is similar to results of Tanrıkulu et al, but differs from other studies in the literature. [8,17,19] Studies conducted in Turkey indicate high rate of male trauma. Larger social role of male population may be good partial explanation.…”

“…[7] What makes the problem more profound is that those inflicting physical violence are most often relatives of the victim. [8][9][10] In such cases, the victim often keeps the violence a secret and refuses to talk about it, which makes resolving the problem more difficult, and may eventually lead to the death of the victim.…”