Domestic elder abuse and associated factors in elderly women in Tehran, Iran

Elderly people are often abused in many ways, with serious and lasting consequences. Elder abuse remains one of the most hidden forms of family conflict, and its frequency is anticipated to be rising in many countries that are rapidly experiencing population aging. The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of domestic elder abuse in elderly women in Tehran, Iran and to identify associated factors.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2017 among 260 women aged 60 and over, selected through multistage random sampling. Information on abuse and its risk factors was collected through interviews with the elderly in their homes. In order to measure domestic elder abuse, the validated Domestic Elderly Abuse Questionnaire was used. The ordinal logistic test was used in Stata version 12 to identify factors related to elder abuse.

Overall, 90.4% of the subjects had experienced at least 1 type of abuse, among which authority deprivation (68.5%) was the most common and rejection (11.2%) the least common. The ordinal logistic analysis showed that the likelihood of experiencing more severe severe abuse was significantly higher in elderly people over 72 than in those aged 60-62 years (odds ratio, 2.07; 95% confidence interval, 1.03 to 4.17).

Domestic elder abuse was found to be common in older women. Old age was an important risk factor for domestic elder abuse in elderly women in Tehran. Managing and preventing elder abuse is an important issue that needs to be addressed.