Elder Abuse: Characterization of a Population Hospitalized in CHUC

Abstract

Mistreatment in the elderly people represents an increasingly problem in today's society. This study intends to evaluate the signs of mistreatment in a population of elderly people admitted to a central Hospital in Portugal and relate them with risk factors. The data were obtained through a questionnaire response, with the participation of 100 elderly people admitted to the Internal Medicine A services of CHUC. The questionnaire was divided into 5 sections, allowing the collection of sociodemographic data, information on emotional status through the Yesavage scale, evaluation of the functional state using the Katz index, the prevalence of abuse indicators with the QEEA instrument and data on health status. The analysis of the results concludes that 36% of the elderly have submitted at least one indicator of abuse. Emotional abuse (29%) and negligence (24%) were more frequently detected, followed by financial abuse (12%) and physical abuse (5%). When relating the indicators of mistreatment with the other variables, it was concluded that there is an association between mistreatment indicators and individuals of the female gender, low educational level, depressive symptoms, increased functional dependence, number of medicine taken per day, number of emergency services visits and number of hospitalizations. This study alerts for the high number of elderly people with signals of mistreatment hospitalized in central hospitals in Portugal. It is important to remember of this global health issue and to develop intervention strategies in order to contribute to reduction or extinction of elderly abuse.