Prevalence of elder abuse in the United States: a comparative report between the national and Wisconsin data

This study is designed to calculate the prevalence of elder abuse in Wisconsin and the United States and to perform a geographic comparison of elder abuse prevalence by county in Wisconsin. The national data was obtained from the National Elder Abuse Incidence Study, and the Wisconsin data from the Department of Health and Family Services. The population statistics were obtained from the United States Census Bureau. The prevalence of elder abuse based on substantiated cases was 2.7 per thousand (236,479 cases) in the United States and 1.6 per thousand (2629 cases) in Wisconsin in 1996 (p < 0.05). There was an increase in elder abuse prevalence in Wisconsin between 1990 and 1998. Larger metropolitan counties had the largest number of reported cases but more rural counties had the highest prevalence (14 per thousand in Vilas County) and the highest rate of increase in elder abuse prevalence (increase by 9.4 per thousand in Langlade County). This study shows that there are national and local geographic variations in the prevalence of elder abuse cases reported to Adult Protective Services. Further studies are needed to identify factors that led to these variations.