Department of Public Health, Protestant University of Applied Sciences Ludwigsburg, Ludwigsburg, Germany.
Eur J Public Health. 2012 Oct;22(5):662-6. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckr079. Epub 2011 Jul 11.
Violence against and abuse of older persons (VAO) aged>60 years has become a prominent public health issue. From January 2009-July 2009, we conducted the cross-sectional European study 'Abuse of the elderly in the European region' (ABUEL) among community-dwelling elderly populations aged 60-84 years in Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. We describe the cooperation, completion and response rates; the modes of recruitment and administration; and analyse differences in response rates between countries.
We calculated the population fraction (respondents in each age/sex group divided by the population in the same age/sex group) and the population fraction ratio (PFR) to describe and analyse heterogeneity between countries. To analyse associations between methods and response rates we conducted cross tabulations and logistic regression analyses.
The response rates ranged from 18.9% in Germany to 87.4% in Portugal. Men were underrepresented in all countries (PFR<1). Cluster- and cohort-based sampling produced the highest overall response rates.
More European and international studies investigating response behaviour in VAO research systematically are needed to gain further knowledge about the internal and external validity of research on VAO.
针对 60 岁以上老年人的暴力和虐待（VAO）已成为一个突出的公共卫生问题。2009 年 1 月至 7 月，我们在德国、希腊、意大利、立陶宛、葡萄牙、西班牙和瑞典开展了一项针对 60-84 岁社区居住老年人的欧洲横断面研究“欧洲地区老年人虐待（ABUEL）”。我们描述了合作、完成和回应率；招募和管理模式；并分析了各国之间回应率的差异。
我们计算了人口分数（每个年龄/性别组中的受访者除以同年龄/性别组中的人口）和人口分数比（PFR），以描述和分析各国之间的异质性。为了分析方法与回应率之间的关系，我们进行了交叉表和逻辑回归分析。
回应率从德国的 18.9%到葡萄牙的 87.4%不等。所有国家的男性都存在代表性不足的情况（PFR<1）。基于聚类和队列的抽样产生了最高的总体回应率。
需要更多的欧洲和国际研究系统地调查 VAO 研究中的回应行为，以进一步了解 VAO 研究的内部和外部有效性。
