Developmental Research on Elder Mistreatment

虐待老年人的发展研究

基本信息

批准号：
7089488
负责人：
LAURA A MOSQUEDA
金额：
$ 15.63万
依托单位：
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2006
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2006-07-01 至 2008-06-30
项目状态：
已结题

项目摘要

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The projected rapid increase in numbers of older Americans raises the concern that elder mistreatment will grow as much and as fast as the population of elders. Although it is clear that the problem of elder mistreatment is already large - the best estimate is that one to two million older Americans are victims of mistreatment annually - most events are never reported. The personal costs are profound: not only do victims suffer from their injuries and losses, they are likely to die at an earlier age than elders who are not victims of mistreatment. There is very little understanding of the issues that surround elder mistreatment, for example risk or preventive factors, physical markers, consequences and clinical courses, healthcare and other costs, successful interventions and, methods for studying each of these issues. Current approaches to detecting abuse for research purposes are either invalid and unreliable or cumbersome, and difficult to apply on a broad scale, making population studies infeasible. There is a desperate need for a standardized measurement approach that can be generalized across groups. This application recommends development and testing of a self-report, survey-based measure that can be broadly applied to generate population estimates of abuse and move elder mistreatment research forward. This project must confront a number of methodological issues, including (a) lack of standardized conceptual and operational definitions of the five generally-accepted categories of mistreatment: physical, psychological and sexual abuse, neglect by a trusted other and financial exploitation; (b) cognitively-impaired older adults who are unreliable reporters of their experiences; (c) generalization of the instrument across ethnic groups; and (d) relevance to the community of elder mistreatment professionals. Thus we aim to: Aim 1. Develop conceptual definitions and methods for operationalizing the definitions for all five categories of elder mistreatment. Aim 2. Design a self-reported, survey-based measure for detecting presence and severity of all types of elder mistreatment. Aim 3. Determine whether the survey-based measure validly and reliably predicts elder mistreatment in samples of Mexican American and Non-Hispanic white community-dwelling elders, including the cognitively impaired. With a valid, reliable criterion standard for detecting elder mistreatment, researchers can begin to measure and understand and policy makers can activate the resources needed to adequately address this significant and distressing public health problem.

描述（由申请人提供）：预计美国老年人数量将迅速增加，这引起了人们的担忧，即虐待老年人的现象将随着老年人口的数量而增长。尽管虐待老年人的问题显然已经很严重——最准确的估计是每年有一到两百万美国老年人成为虐待的受害者——但大多数事件从未被报道过。个人付出的代价是巨大的：受害者不仅要承受伤害和损失，而且可能比非虐待受害者的长辈早死。人们对虐待老年人的问题知之甚少，例如风险或预防因素、身体标志、后果和临床过程、医疗保健和其他成本、成功的干预措施以及研究这些问题的方法。目前以研究为目的检测滥用行为的方法要么无效、不可靠，要么繁琐，并且难以大规模应用，使得人口研究不可行。迫切需要一种可以跨群体推广的标准化测量方法。该应用程序建议开发和测试一种自我报告、基于调查的措施，该措施可广泛应用于生成虐待情况的人口估计并推动虐待老年人的研究向前发展。该项目必须面对一些方法论问题，包括(a) 对五种普遍接受的虐待类别缺乏标准化的概念和操作定义：身体虐待、心理虐待和性虐待、受信任他人的忽视以及经济剥削； (b) 患有认知障碍的老年人，他们无法可靠地讲述自己的经历； (c) 将该文书推广至各族裔群体； (d) 与虐待老年人专业人员社区的相关性。因此，我们的目标是：目标 1. 制定概念定义和方法，以实施所有五类虐待老年人的定义。目标 2. 设计一种基于调查的自我报告措施，用于检测所有类型的老年人虐待行为的存在及其严重程度。目标 3. 确定基于调查的衡量标准是否有效且可靠地预测了社区居住的墨西哥裔美国人和非西班牙裔白人老年人（包括认知障碍者）样本中老年人遭受虐待的情况。有了有效、可靠的检测老年人虐待的标准，研究人员就可以开始衡量和理解，政策制定者也可以激活所需的资源，充分解决这一重大而令人痛苦的公共卫生问题。