Citation

Baker PR, Francis DP, Mohd Hairi NN, Othman S, Choo WY. Age Ageing 2016; 46(3): 346-348.

Affiliation

Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Malaya, Julius Centre University of Malaysia, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/ageing/afw186

PMID

27737827

Abstract

There is evidence that elder abuse is a significant public health problem that is destined to grow as population age. Countries are considering how best to act and this requires an understanding of the complex causal mechanisms contributing to its occurrence and the identification of effective interventions which can potentially make a difference. Previously, a high quality synthesis of evidence for policy and practice has been missing. In this paper, we describe a new Cochrane review of interventions to prevent the occurrence or reoccurrence of elder abuse. Overall, the quality of the evidence available for decision making is very low and there is little to guide practice. Amongst the interventions, there is some evidence that teaching coping skills to family carers of persons with dementia might make the situation better. We argue that poor quality and wasteful research needs to be avoided, and front-line agencies be supported in undertaking comparative evaluation of their services.

© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Language: en