Elder Abuse Widespread Study Shows

At Clark and Steinhorn, we rely on many scholarly journals to assist us in evaluating Maryland  and District of Columbia medical malpractice cases and nursing home abuse cases. One of the best is the American Journal of Public Health.

This next issue focuses on many topics but from our point-of-view the most instructive is an article entitled " Prevalence and Correlates of Emotional, Physical, Sexual and Financial Abuse and Potential Neglect in the United States: The National Elder Mistreatment Study".

Data was obtained from more than 5,777 respondents across a broad spectrum of American society. Over 10% of the sampling reported mistreatment or abuse.

Financial abuse was the most widespread followed by neglect and emotional abuse.

The most consistent factors for predicting elder abuse were low social support and prior trauma.