The prevalence, severity and chronicity of abuse towards older men: Insights from a multinational European survey
Metadata
Show full item recordEditorial
PLOS ONE
Date
2021Referencia bibliográfica
Melchiorre MG, Di Rosa M, Macassa G, Eslami B, Torres-Gonzales F, Stankunas M, et al. (2021) The prevalence, severity and chronicity of abuse towards older men: Insights from a multinational European survey. PLoS ONE 16(4): e0250039. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0250039
Sponsorship
ABUEL Project, "Elder Abuse: A multinational prevalence survey"; European Commission; Executive Agency for Health and Consumers (EAHC, currently CHAFEA, Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency; Public Health Programme 2008–2010 (Grant Agreement n. 2007123)Abstract
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 preva lence, 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% (sex ual) and 20.3% (psychological), with severe acts between 0.2% (sexual) and 8.2% (psycho logical). 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 rela tively 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.