Elderly Abuse in Ahwaz City and Its Relationship With Individual and Social Characteristics

Objectives: Older people are a vulnerable group in the society and older people abuse is a common challenge in the domain of caring and advocating. This study aimed to investigate the elderly abuse prevalence and its relationship with individual and social characteristics. Methods & Materials: This study was a cross-sectional study. Participants were 385 older people aged more than 60 years old who were selected randomly. Elder Abuse scale (content validity and reliability=87%) used. Data analysis conduced in SPSS. Results: Participant's mean age was 70 years old prevalence of physical abuse was 11.7%, emotional abuse 5.18%, neglect 27.7%, abundance 23/8% and financial abuse 18/3%. There was a significant association (P=0.001) between exiting disease and type of living and also between physical dependence to others and abuse (P=0.001). Conclusion: Despite respect to elder people in our culture, this population experience abuse specially neglect and financial ones. There fore,precise recognition of elder abuse in our society can increase the awareness and senility of responsible organizations in order to prevent and plan for an effective system, for vulnerable older people .