The prevalence, severity and chronicity of abuse towards older men: Insights from a multinational European survey

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
File version

Version of Record (VoR)

Author(s)
Melchiorre, MG
Rosa, MD
Macassa, G
Eslami, B
Torres-Gonzales, F
Stankunas, M
Lindert, J
Ioannidi-Kapolou, E
Barros, H
Lamura, G
Soares, JJF
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
2021
Size
File type(s)
Location
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 prevalence, 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% (sexual) and 20.3% (psychological), with severe acts between 0.2% (sexual) and 8.2% (psychological). 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 relatively 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.

Journal Title

PLoS One

Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume

16

Issue

4

Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement

© 2021 Melchiorre et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Item Access Status
Note
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject

Health services and systems

Public health

Criminology

Sociology

Persistent link to this record
Citation

Melchiorre, MG; Rosa, MD; Macassa, G; Eslami, B; Torres-Gonzales, F; Stankunas, M; Lindert, J; Ioannidi-Kapolou, E; Barros, H; Lamura, G; Soares, JJF, The prevalence, severity and chronicity of abuse towards older men: Insights from a multinational European survey, PLoS One, 2021, 16 (4), pp. e0250039

Collections