RT Article
T1 Exploring the Correlates to Depression in Elder Abuse Victims: Abusive Experience or Individual Characteristics?
JF Journal of interpersonal violence
VO 36
IS 1/2
A1 Santos, Ana João
A1 Nunes, Baltazar
A1 Kislaya, Irina
A1 Gil, Ana Paula
A1 Ribeiro, Oscar de Andrade
A2 Nunes, Baltazar
A2 Kislaya, Irina
A2 Gil, Ana Paula
A2 Ribeiro, Oscar de Andrade
LA English
YR 2021
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1747364959
AB Depression and depressive symptoms have been studied both as risk factors and consequences of elder abuse, even though the most common cross-sectional design of the studies does not allow inferring cause or consequence relationships. This study estimates the proportion of older adults who screened positive for depressive symptoms among those self-reporting elder abuse and examines whether individual characteristics and/or abusive experience aspects are associated with self-reported depressive symptoms. Participants were 510 older adults self-reporting experiences of abuse in family setting enrolled in the cross-sectional victims’ survey of the Aging and Violence Study. Depressive symptoms were assessed through the abbreviated version of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-5). Poisson regression was used to determine the prevalence ratio (PR) of screening depressive symptoms according to individual and abusive experience covariates: sex, age group, cohabitation, perceived social support, chronic diseases, functional status, violence type, perpetrator, and number of conducts. Women (PR = 1.18, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.04, 1.35]) individuals perceiving low social support level (PR = 1.36, 95% CI = [1.16, 1.60]) and with long-term illness (PR = 1.17, 95% CI = [1.02, 1.33]) were found to be associated with increased risk for screening depressive symptoms. In regard to abusive experience, only the number of abusive conducts increased the PR (PR = 1.07, 95% CI = [1.05, 1.09]). Routine screening for elder abuse should include psychological well-being assessment. Interventions toward risk alleviation for both mental health problems and elder abuse should target women perceiving low social support level and with long-term illness.
K1 Domestic Violence
K1 Depressive symptoms
K1 vulnerability to abuse
K1 Elder Abuse
DO 10.1177/0886260517732346