The Epidemiological Characteristics And Risk Factors Of Elder Abuse In Rural Community, A Cross-sectional Study

Objective: To understand the prevalence and explore the possible risk factors of elder abuse, and to provide evidences for prevention and control of elder abuse.Methods: The subjects were selected by multistage cluster sampling method. People aged≥60 years in the study areas were interviewed by trained interviewer using a structured questionnaire. Database was set up using Epidata 3.1, and SPSS statistical software package was used for statistical analysis. Chi-square was used to analyze the categorical data. The multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to examine risk factors of elder abuse. The significance was established at P<0.05 with a two-side test.Results: The prevalence of elder abuse was 36.20% for rural elder people in Macheng city. The incidence rates of different type of elder abuse were 27.30% for emotional abuse, 15.80% for neglect, 4.90% for physical abuse and 1.95% for financial exploitation. The most common abusers were son, spouse and daughter in law of the elders. The prevalence of abuse for male (36.58%) was a little higher than that of female (35.95%), but the difference was not significantly. The prevalence of elder abuse was increased with the age (P<0.05).The risk factors for elder abuse were economic dependence on their children (OR=2.01, 1.49~2.70), divorced/widowed/single (OR=2.00, 1.52~2.63), depression (OR=1.98, 1.32~2.96), illiteracy (OR=1.82, 1.25~2.66), disability (OR=1.80, 1.29~2.51) and chronic disease (OR=1.25, 1.03~1.53).The risk factors for physical abuse were economic dependence on their children (OR=2.70, 1.37~5.32), depression (OR=2.24, 1.15~4.36) and divorced/single/widowed (OR=1.56, 1.02~2.40).The risk factors for emotional abuse were single/widowed (OR=2.27, 1.68~3.05), depression (OR=2.22, 1.47~3.35), economic dependence on their children (OR=2.21, 1.61~3.05), living alone (OR=1.96, 1.059~3.64), illiteracy (OR=1.93, 1.24~3.00) or primary educational level (OR=1.67, 1.09~2.58), disability (OR=1.90, 1.34~2.70) and chronic disease (OR=1.37, 1.10~1.71).The risk factors for neglect were hospitalization last year (OR=1.86, 1.17~2.94), living economic dependence on their children (OR=1.74, 1.18~2.58), male (OR=1.71, 1.55~1.91) and single/widowed (OR=1.46, 1.12~1.90).The risk factors for financial exploitation were depression (OR=3.13, 1.27~7.72), disability (OR=2.73, 1.17~6.38) and not working (OR=1.25, 1.08~1.45).Conclusions: Elder abuse was a severe public health problem in Macheng city. Our results suggested specific health educations and interventions for those elder people with different characteristics are necessary to reduce elder abuse.