Iowa family physician’s reporting of elder abuse: 20-year follow-up

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this project was to assess changes over 20 years, between family physicians perceived magnitude of elder mistreatment, physician knowledge of state laws, barriers to reporting suspected cases, and what is done in practice. Questionnaires were mailed to 1,080 physician members of the Iowa Academy of Family Physicians. Thirty-six percent of physicians returned the questionnaire. These respondents had a mean age of 51 years, were licensed for 19 years, and 51% were male. Twenty-nine percent of physicians ask their patients direct questions about elder abuse in 2022 compared to 14% in 2002. Identifying an elder abuse case was associated with asking direct questions about abuse and the belief that prompt action would be taken. Knowledge of elder abuse legislation was associated with reporting of all abuse cases, along with thinking there were clear definitions of abuse and that reporting benefits patients.

KEYWORDS:

• Elder abuse
• family physician
• reporting elder abuse

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08946566.2023.2297228.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availablity statement

Data from this study are available upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.