Domestic Elder Abuse in Rural Area of Dezful, Iran and Its Relation With Their Quality of Life

• Main Authors: Leila Mohebbi, Shahla Zahednejad, Sheida Javadi Pour, Azadeh Saki
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: University of Social Welfare & Rehabilitation Sciences 2016-01-01
• Series: Sālmand
• Subjects: Elder abuse; Quality of life; Rural region
• Online Access: http://salmandj.uswr.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1298-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1

Objectives: Elderly people are the most vulnerable group of the society and elder abuse phenomenon&nbsp;is one of the most considerable challenges in the field of protecting and caring the elders. The present&nbsp;study was conducted in order to determine domestic elder abuse in rural area of Dezful City, Iran, and its&nbsp;relation with their quality of life in 2013. Methods & Materials:&nbsp;The present study is a correlational cross-sectional study. By cluster random sampling&nbsp;method, 210 elders, aged &ge;60 years and resident of Dezful City, were selected to participate in the&nbsp;study. Those elders, who had no cognitive disorder based on Persian version of short test of cognitive&nbsp;status, were entered into the study after obtaining their consent. Afterwards, the questionnaire of family&nbsp;elder abuse; Persian version of SF-36 questionnaire for measuring life quality from health perspective;&nbsp;and also questionnaire of demographic and personal information were fulfilled for them. Collected data&nbsp;were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Chi-square, and t-tests. Results: Results of the present study indicated that 60.5% of studied sample experienced at least one type&nbsp;of abuse. Maximum prevalence of abuse was related to emotional negligence (38.6%) and minimum&nbsp;level to care negligence (7.3%). At the present study, group of elders without experience of abuse had&nbsp;significantly better life quality than others in all 8 aspects of life quality, except for 2 aspects of physical&nbsp;performance and general health (P<0.05). Conclusion: In spite of high emphasis on respecting elders in our culture, the elders experience different&nbsp;types of abuse. Hence, specific consideration and inducing sensitivity in relevant organizations and individuals&nbsp;is required to prevent the long-term consequences and effects of this issue.