Domestic violence against seniors in rural areas of West Pomerania, Poland

Abstract

Introduction and objective. The study on domestic violence in rural areas of Western Pomerania (Poland), carried out in October 2017, aimed at determining the scale of domestic violence against the elderly, taking into account its 5 forms: psychological, physical, economic and sexual violence, as well as negligence. Materials and method. The research concept was implemented with the use of a representative sampling method by means of a questionnaire-based audit interview, and using research tools to measure the social scale of the phenomenon of domestic violence, the victims of which were the elderly from one of the rural communes of Western Pomerania. Results. The basic results of the survey were as follows: 1) 40.1% of seniors reported experiencing violence from their family members; 2) 36.5% experienced psychological violence and 21.9%-negligence; 3) 8.8% were victims of economic violence and 5.1%-of physical violence; 4) sexual abuse was the least frequently reported-0.7%. Conclusions. Domestic violence in rural areas could affect as many as 40% of seniors. Generally, they admitted to experiencing one of the 5 forms of violence distinguished in the study, of which acts of psychological violence were predominant. Negligence and economic violence were relatively less frequent. Physical violence was even less prevalent. On the other hand, 8.1% of seniors experienced 3-4 forms of violence, which could be considered as a situation of increased risk of pathologisation of their family life.

Prevalence and Nature of Sexual Violence in Older Adults in Europe: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis of Evidence

“…Twelve studies reported on community- dwelling older adults [37, 39-41, 43-50], one on older adults living in nursing homes [38] and one study comprised a mixed sample [42]. Moreover, nine studies were based on random samples [37, 39-41, 44, 47-50], five were convenience samples [38, 42, 43, 45, 46]. Five of the random samples were nationally-representative [37, 40, 41, 44, 48].…”

“…Five studies used the age of 60 as cut-off age for inclusion of older adults [42, 44, 46, 49, 50], five studies used 65 [37, 40, 41, 45, 47], one study 66 and one study used 70 [39]. Two studies did not report a cut-off age [38, 43]. Two studies only included older women [38, 50], one study included a majority of males [47], eight studies included a majority of female participants [37, 39-42, 44, 45, 49].…”

“…Two studies only included older women [38, 50], one study included a majority of males [47], eight studies included a majority of female participants [37, 39-42, 44, 45, 49]. Three studies did not report a female-male ratio [43, 46, 48]. All studies, except two [42, 44], used face-to-face interviews.…”

“…Participation rates ranged from 26 to 93%. One study reported on the last 3-months prevalence of SV [41], one on the last 6- months prevalence [43], eight on the last year prevalence [40, 42, 44-46, 48-50], one on the lifetime prevalence [37] and four on the prevalence from their cut-off age, being 60, 65 or 70 years old [37, 39, 40, 48]. One study in a nursing home population reported on the time period the older adults had resided in the nursing home [38].…”

“…Description of included studies (Table 1) The 14 references selected for the review included information from 15 different countries: three studies from Belgium [37][38][39] one from Ireland [40], one from Israel [41], one from Italy [42], one from Poland [43], one from Portugal [44], three from Turkey [45][46][47], one from the United Kingdom [48] and two European multi-country studies [49,50]. Twelve studies reported on communitydwelling older adults [37,[39][40][41][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50], one on older adults living in nursing homes [38] and one study comprised a mixed sample [42]. Moreover, nine studies were based on random samples [37, 39-41, 44, 47-50], five were convenience samples [38,42,43,45,46].…”