Background: Elder abuse profoundly affects quality of life. This study aimed to determine the factors associated with elder abuse among older adults attending health service centers in Kerman City in 2023.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 397 older adults from the suburban areas of Kerman. Data collected using the Domestic Elder Abuse Questionnaire, which includes 49 items in eight subscales. The scores of all subscales were transformed to a 0–100 scale, with higher scores indicating greater severity. Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, Spearman, and multiple linear regression tests were used.
Results: the mean age of the participants was 69.56 ± 8.14 years, and 51.8 % were female. The overall abuse score was 10.81. Emotional neglect (20.53) and curtailment of personal autonomy (5.11) had the highest and lowest scores, respectively. Frequent hospitalization (B = 1.478, p < 0.001), a history of chronic illness (B = 0.370, p = 0.022) and being widowed (B = 0.451, p = 0.013) were significantly associated with higher scores. Age, gender, number of children, education, and income show no statistically significant relationship. (P>0.05)
Conclusion: Although the overall abuse score was low, this does not necessarily indicate a low true prevalence of the phenomenon. It may reflect underreporting due to sociocultural factors. Therefore, the health system should implement timely and appropriate interventions to identify elder abuse and its associated factors in primary care settings.