Physical And Financial Abuse In The Elderly Population In Manisa, Turkey

This study investigated physical and financial abuse in an elderly population of age 65 and older, residing in two different settlement regions (rural and urban) of Manisa Province. The population of this cross-sectional study was 3163 elderly individuals who were living at the region of two randomly selected primary medical services (one at rural area, other at urban area) in April 2015. The sample size was calculated using the software of Epi info 7.0; thereby, 480 elderly individuals were enrolled. Each individual was randomly selected from his/her registration at the Manisa Public Health Deparment. All data were collected by face-to-face interview and a standardized questionnaire form, that involved sociodemographic characteristics, health and social status, Katz index was used. The rate of participation was 88.9% (n=427). All data was evaluated using descriptive analysis and chi square test. Logistic regression was used for multivariate analysis. The mean age of the study group was 72.9±6.7. The majority of individuals (86.4%) had a chronic disease for which continuous drug administration was required, 49.6% was women, 35.1% was graduated from elementary school and %23.4 was living alone. More than 79.4 of elderly could have done daily living activities easily, less than 5% were depent in one or more basic activities of their daily life. Elderly abuse was determined 11.3% of study group(urban 13.0%, rural 9.6% , p>0.05). Verbal abuse was most common (10.3%). Physical abuse was 5.4% and financial abuse was 2.7%. The risk factors of elderly abuse were being 85 years of age and over, having worse percieved health status, social isolation, insufficient income and lack of accessibility in health care. In conclusion, low rates of physical and financial abuse were found in Manisa. Preservation of the traditional family structure in this populations seems to be providing protection against elderly abuse.