Elder Abuse: Global Situation, Risk Factors, and Prevention Strategies
Open accessAbstract
PURPOSE: Elder mistreatment is now recognized internationally as a pervasive and growing problem, urgently requiring the attention of health care systems, social welfare agencies, policymakers, and the general public. In this article, we provide an overview of global issues in the field of elder abuse, with a focus on prevention. DESIGN AND METHODS: This article provides a scoping review of key issues in the field from an international perspective. RESULTS: By drawing primarily on population-based studies, this scoping review provided a more valid and reliable synthesis of current knowledge about prevalence and risk factors than has been available. Despite the lack of scientifically rigorous intervention research on elder abuse, the review also identified 5 promising strategies for prevention. IMPLICATIONS: The findings highlight a growing consensus across studies regarding the extent and causes of elder mistreatment, as well as the urgent need for efforts to make elder mistreatment prevention programs more effective and evidence based.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
The world report on violence and health
Krug, E. G., Mercy, J. A., Dahlberg, L. L., & Zwi, A. B. (2002) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(02)11133-0 · Cited by 9,110 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Substantial differences exist among nations; there are clearly much more expansive elder abuse service systems in high-income countries (Krug et al., 2002).”
Background'Scoping the scope' of a cochrane review
Armstrong, R., Hall, B. J., Doyle, J., & Waters, E. (2011) · Journal of Public Health · doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdr015 · Cited by 1,260 · see citing works
Livingston, G., Barber, J., Rapaport, P., Knapp, M., Griffin, M., King, D., Livingston, D., Mummery, C., Walker, Z., Hoe, J., et al. (2013) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.f6276 · Cited by 233 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Further, there is some indication that the potential for the onset of abuse may be reduced by caregiver support interventions (Livingston et al., 2013; Sethi et al., 2011).”
BackgroundA systematic review of interventions for elder abuse
Ploeg, J., Fear, J., Hutchison, B., MacMillan, H., & Bolan, G. (2009) · Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect · doi:10.1080/08946560902997181 · Cited by 175 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Burnes, D., Henderson, C. R., Sheppard, C., Zhao, R., Pillemer, K., & Lachs, M. S. (2017) · American Journal of Public Health · doi:10.2105/ajph.2017.303821 · Cited by 237 · see citing works
Self-citationElder Fraud and Financial Exploitation: Application of Routine Activity Theory
DeLiema, M. (2018) · The Gerontologist · doi:10.1093/geront/gnw258 · Cited by 156 · see citing works
Herrenkohl, T. I., Fedina, L., Roberto, K. A., Raquet, K. L., Hu, R. X., Rousson, A. N., & Mason, W. A. (2022) · Trauma, Violence, & Abuse · doi:10.1177/1524838020939119 · Cited by 119 · see citing works
Muhammad, T., Meher, T., & Sekher, T. V. (2021) · BMJ Open · doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055625 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Bogo, M., Kourgiantakis, T., Burns, D., King, B., & Lee, E. (2021) · Clinical Social Work Journal · doi:10.1007/s10615-020-00777-6 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Mortality among elder abuse victims in rural Malaysia: A two-year population-based descriptive study
Yunus, R. M., Hairi, N. N., Choo, W. Y., Hairi, F. M., Sooryanarayana, R., Ahmad, S. N., Abdul Razak, I., Peramalah, D., Abdul Aziz, S., Mohammad, Z. L., et al. (2017) · Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect · doi:10.1080/08946566.2016.1260083 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
- Authors
- Pillemer, K., Burnes, D., Riffin, C., & Lachs, M. S.
- Affiliations
- Cornell University (US)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Yale University (US)
- Weill Cornell Medicine (US)
- Corresponding author
- Pillemer, Karl
- Venue
- The Gerontologist
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2016-03-18
- Volume
- 56
- Issue
- Suppl 2
- Pages
- S194-S205
- ISSN
- 0016-9013 (ISSN-L)
- 1758-5341
- PMC
- PMC5291158
- OpenAlex
- W2297530435
- Cited by
- 797
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 77 · 2025: 89 · 2024: 80 · 2023: 84 · 2022: 104 · 2021: 112 · 2020: 95 · 2019: 60 · 2018: 54 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 11
- FWCI
- 11.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- The Gerontologist (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Aging (1P30AG022845, AG014299-06A2)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Demography › Elder Abuse and Neglect
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Social Sciences › Health › Intimate Partner and Family Violence
- Keywords
- elder abuse, elder abuse prevention, risk factors, prevalence, international environment, prevention, older adults
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Elder Abuse, Humans, Risk Factors, Global Health, Geriatric Assessment, Prevalence, Guidelines as Topic
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
