Risk factors of severity of abuse against older women in the home setting: A multinational European study

ABSTRACT

This article examines the ecological risk factors of abuse against older women. Data from 2,880 older women were randomly collected in five European countries (Austria, Belgium, Finland, Lithuania, and Portugal) using a standardized questionnaire. Results indicate that overall 30.1 % older women had at least one experience of abuse in the past year. The findings demonstrate that a single emphasis on personal risk factors (e.g., health, coping) is important but too simple: Abuse is multifaceted and is embedded in environmental (e.g., loneliness, household income) as well as macrocultural contexts (e.g., old age dependency ratio).

KEYWORDS:

• Ecological model
• elder abuse
• mistreatment
• risk factors

Notes

¹ For instance, the older women were asked if somebody close to them has “… insulted you or sworn at you; called you fat, ugly, or other names; shouted or yelled at you; destroyed something that belonged to you,” etc.

² More information on research methodology, nonresponse, and the measurement instrument can be found in De Donder et al., 2013 and Lang et al., 2014.

³ For items representing neglect, the answer format/scale represents the frequency of refusals (1 = never refused, 2 = refused 1–6 times, 3 = refused once, 4 = refused weekly. For people without the need for help in everyday life, an answer category was added (0 = no, did not need help).