Elder Abuse and Neglect

Elder abuse and neglect encompass a range of harmful behaviors directed at older adults—including physical mistreatment, emotional harm, financial exploitation, and failure to provide adequate care—and affect a substantial share of community-dwelling and institutionalized older populations worldwide. Demographic researchers study who is most at risk, how abuse patterns vary across social and institutional contexts, and what the downstream consequences are for health and survival, with evidence linking mistreatment to significantly elevated mortality risk. Despite growing recognition of the problem, reliable prevalence estimates remain difficult to establish because abuse is chronically underreported and definitions vary across studies and jurisdictions. Active research directions include identifying the structural and relational conditions that make older adults vulnerable, evaluating the effectiveness of community-based interventions, and understanding how cognitive decline intersects with financial exploitation in particular.

Works

32,734

Total citations

179,791

Keywords

Elder AbuseNeglectFinancial ExploitationRisk FactorsPrevalenceCommunity Settings