Developmental Research on Elder Mistreatment

描述(由申请人提供)：预计老年美国人的数量将迅速增加，这引发了人们的担忧，即虐待老年人的数量将与老年人人口的增长一样多、一样快。尽管虐待老年人的问题显然已经很大了--最准确的估计是，每年有一两百万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。个人成本是巨大的：受害者不仅遭受伤害和损失，而且他们可能比没有受到虐待的长辈更早死亡。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、后果和临床病程、医疗保健和其他费用、成功的干预措施以及研究这些问题的方法。目前用于研究目的的检测虐待行为的方法要么无效、不可靠，要么繁琐，难以广泛应用，使人口研究变得不可行。迫切需要一种可以跨组推广的标准化测量方法。该应用程序建议开发和测试一种基于调查的自我报告措施，该措施可广泛应用于生成虐待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)对普遍接受的五类虐待缺乏标准化的概念和操作定义：身体、心理和性虐待、被信任的其他人忽视和经济剥削；(B)认知受损的老年人，他们不能可靠地报告自己的经历；(C)将该文书推广到各族裔群体；以及(D)与虐待老年人专业人士社区的相关性。因此，我们的目标是：目标1.制定概念性定义和方法，以便将所有五类虐待老年人的定义付诸实施。目的2.设计一种自我报告的、基于调查的测量方法，用于检测所有类型的老年人虐待的存在和严重程度。目的3.在墨西哥裔美国人和非西班牙裔白人社区老年人(包括认知障碍者)的样本中，确定基于调查的措施是否有效和可靠地预测虐待老年人的情况。有了一个有效、可靠的检测虐待老年人的标准标准，研究人员就可以开始衡量和了解，政策制定者可以激活所需的资源，以充分解决这一重大而令人痛苦的公共卫生问题。

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.