Identifying Injury Patterns Associated With Physical Elder Abuse: Analysis of Legally Adjudicated Cases.

ABSTRACT:

Study objective

Elder abuse is common and has serious health consequences but is underrecognized by health care providers. An important reason for this is difficulty in distinguishing between elder abuse and unintentional trauma. Our goal was to identify injury patterns associated with physical elder abuse in comparison with those of patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with unintentional falls.

Methods

We partnered with a large, urban district attorney's office and examined medical, police, and legal records from successfully prosecuted cases of physical abuse of victims aged 60 years or older from 2001 to 2014.

Results

We prospectively enrolled patients who presented to a large, urban, academic ED after an unintentional fall. We matched 78 cases of e

SUBMITTER: Rosen T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7924666 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature