Irizarry Irizarry Annabelle
University of Puerto Rico, College of Arecibo, Department of Social Sciences.
P R Health Sci J. 2005 Dec;24(4):303-11.
Contribute to the knowledge base of the risk factor literature by gender for abuse, mistreatment and neglect of the Puerto Rican aged.
A review of the literature in Puerto Rico and the United States related to gender impacting upon elder abuse, mistreatment and neglect report conflicting findings.
A 107 item questionnaire was developed. The definitions of abuse, mistreatment and neglect were based on those set out by the National Center on Elder Abuse in the United States (1998). The questionnaire has been preliminarily validated by Cronbach's Alpha .879. The sample of respondents was based upon availability. This method was selected in the face of practical considerations in spite of criticism to the external validity that this type of sample represents. Structured face to face interviews were carried out from August to December 2004 with 430 aged residing in community. Data were entered into the SPSS program whereby cross tabulations were carried out for gender.
Elderly Puerto Ricans regardless of gender are knowledgeable concerning what constitutes attributes of abuse, mistreatment and neglect. Females were found to report a high percentage of yes responses than males to opinion statements related to situations of abuse, mistreatment and neglect. Males reported a higher percentage of yes responses to situations of exposure to abuse and neglect than females.
Findings here are similar to some reported in the United States but are dissimilar to those reported in Puerto Rico. Further research must be carried out to pinpoint the living arrangements situations placing the aged in greatest risk for abuse and neglect. Such findings have implications for social policy, prevention and intervention strategies.
通过研究波多黎各老年人遭受虐待、不当对待和忽视的风险因素文献，为知识库做出贡献。
对波多黎各和美国有关性别对老年人虐待、不当对待和忽视影响的文献综述报告了相互矛盾的结果。
编制了一份包含107个条目的问卷。虐待、不当对待和忽视的定义基于美国国家老年人虐待中心（1998年）所规定的定义。该问卷已通过克朗巴哈系数0.879进行了初步验证。受访者样本基于可得性。尽管这种样本类型的外部有效性受到批评，但鉴于实际考虑因素，还是选择了这种方法。2004年8月至12月，对430名居住在社区的老年人进行了结构化的面对面访谈。数据录入SPSS程序，据此按性别进行交叉制表。
无论性别如何，波多黎各老年人都了解虐待、不当对待和忽视的属性构成。在与虐待、不当对待和忽视情况相关的意见陈述方面，发现女性报告肯定回答的比例高于男性。在遭受虐待和忽视情况方面，男性报告肯定回答的比例高于女性。
此处的研究结果与美国报告的一些结果相似，但与波多黎各报告的结果不同。必须开展进一步研究，以确定使老年人面临最大虐待和忽视风险的生活安排情况。这些研究结果对社会政策、预防和干预策略具有启示意义。
