TY - JOUR PY - 2017// TI - Exploring the correlates to depression in elder abuse victims: abusive experience or individual characteristics? JO - Journal of interpersonal violence A1 - Santos, Ana João A1 - Nunes, Baltazar A1 - Kislaya, Irina A1 - Gil, Ana Paula A1 - Ribeiro, Oscar SP - 886260517732346 EP - 886260517732346 VL - ePub IS - ePub N2 - 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.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 0886-2605 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0886260517732346 ID - ref1 ER -