A systematic review on community-based interventions for elder abuse and neglect

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Public Health
• Social Work

Background:

• Elder abuse and neglect represent a significant societal problem requiring effective prevention and intervention strategies.
• Existing research highlights a need to advance the understanding of community-based elder abuse interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review the efficacy of community-based interventions aimed at reducing elder abuse and neglect.
• To identify the levels of evidence supporting various intervention strategies for elder abuse.

Main Methods:

• A systematic literature search was conducted across four databases for peer-reviewed articles published between 2009 and December 2015.
• Two independent raters assessed the methodological quality and assigned evidence levels using a modified Sackett Scale.
• Nine articles were selected from 4,905 identified studies for inclusion in the review.

Main Results:

• Level-1 evidence supported psychological interventions, with one study (Strategies for Relatives - START) showing a decrease in elder abuse.
• Level-4 evidence was found for conservatorship, Elder Care Intervention and Prevention Program (ECARE), and multidisciplinary interventions, with one study demonstrating significant reductions in elder abuse/neglect.
• Level-5 evidence supported elder mediation and other multidisciplinary interventions, but with limited impact reported.

Conclusions:

• There is a scarcity of high-quality, evidence-based studies demonstrating the effectiveness of community-based interventions in decreasing elder abuse and neglect.
• Further research is crucial to improve the methodological rigor of studies evaluating interventions for older adults and their caregivers.
• The findings underscore the need for developing and rigorously testing novel community-based strategies to address elder abuse and neglect.