[Elderly maltreatment: integrative review of the literature]

The study aimed to identify, through an integrative literature review, scientific knowledge, produced between 2005 and 2009 about the mistreatment of the elderly. It was selected sixteen studies in the data banks LILACS, SciELO and BDENF. Of the sixteen studies, 56.25% comprised original articles. The journal that published the most was the Public Health Journal (25%), being the majority of the studies from the Southeast (56.25%). The survey revealed that the physical violence was prevalent among the elderly; the home was the environment where aggression occurs more frequently; and family members were the main aggressors. Among the elderly attacked, it was observed that women are the victims most affected. These findings raise the development of other researches that might clarify the multiple dimensions of violence against the elderly.