Regular Research ArticlesIndicators of Elder Abuse: A Crossnational Comparison of Psychiatric Morbidity and Other Determinants in the Ad-HOC Study
Section snippets
Setting
The AdHOC (aged in home care) study took place in 11 European countries from 2001–2003. The study coordinator selected an area that they judged to be representative of their whole country. In seven countries (The Netherlands, Czech Republic, and the Nordic countries), this was the capital city. Elsewhere, the areas selected were Kent in the United Kingdom, Amiens in France, Monza in Italy, and Nurenberg and Bayreuth in Germany. Eligibility criteria for health and social services in the
RESULTS
In total, 3,881 people aged 65+ receiving health or social services were assessed, a response rate of 79.7%. Their mean age was 82, and 74.2% were female. Overall levels of psychiatric and cognitive morbidity are shown in Table 1. Table 2 gives the population, numbers assessed, and refusal rates for each country. Three hundred forty-seven (9%) people interviewed had a preexisting psychiatric diagnosis (excluding dementia), with the lowest proportion recorded in Italy. Five hundred seven (13.1%)
Elder Abuse Prevalence
This is the first crossnational study of indicators of elder abuse and the largest reported study of its prevalence and determinants. Approximately 5% of people screened positive for abuse, which is similar to the previous study of elder abuse using the MDS-HC,4 the first time that the same elder abuse assessment tool as a previous large study has been used to allow comparison, and with the overall rate of abuse found in a previous U.K. study.7 Together with the large sample size and robust
CONCLUSIONS
Approximately 5% of older people screened positive for abuse, and clinicians should be aware that it is more likely in people with depression, cognitive impairment, or delusions and ask about it. People with severe cognitive impairment are at greatest risk of physical abuse and people with moderate cognitive impairment of neglect. Improved detection of dementia and other psychologic morbidity would be rational strategies to combat elder abuse.
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Cited by (0)
The AdHOC study was funded by the EC Vth Framework Programme funding contract no. QLK6-2000-00002.
The AdHOC project was conducted by Fellows of the interRAI collaboration. The authors thank all the participants and interviewers and the European Union Vth Framework Programme for funding this project.