Nursing Department, University Centre Varaždin, University North, Ul. 104. brigade 3, 42 000 Varaždin, Croatia,
Psychiatr Danub. 2019 Sep;31(Suppl 3):345-353.
Elder abuse and neglect can be defined as refusing or failing to fulfil a caregiver's obligation to meet the needs of elderly individuals in order to punish or hurt them. We aimed to explore perceptions of elder mistreatment of both caregivers and residents during long-term care, and highlight significant differences in the overall mistreatment perception regarding socio-demographic variables, as well as the type of care facility.
The study involved 171 caregivers and 245 elderly individuals in stationary facilities. Two structured questionnaires were used - one for caregivers and the other for institutionalized elderly residents, whose initial validation concerning question and factor selection has been based upon exploratory factor analysis and discriminant validity. Parametric and nonparametric tests were employed in the statistical analysis, and statistical significance was set at p<0.05 (two-sided).
We found significant differences in the perception of elder abuse and neglect between caregivers and elderly residents. More specifically, caregivers tend to recognize unnecessary or inappropriate medical/care procedures as indicators of elder mistreatment, while the elderly residents emphasize the removal of their personal belongings and inappropriate physical contact. According to the care facility, residents reported abuse/neglect more frequently in extended care units (21.4%), compared to the county-owned nursing home (11.4%) and private nursing home (12.1%) (p=0.001). Similarly, caregivers reported abuse/neglect more frequently in extended care units (75.4%), in comparison to county-owned nursing home (24.6%) and private nursing home (0%) (p=0.039). Shift work was also a significant predictor, as the morning nursing staff perceived abuse/neglect more frequently (p=0.011).
This study has shown that residents and caregivers have contrasting vantage points in relation to elder abuse/neglect perception, which underlines the need for evidence-based standardization of procedures to prevent any type of elder mistreatment.
虐待和忽视老年人可以定义为拒绝或未能履行照顾者满足老年人需求的义务，以惩罚或伤害他们。我们旨在探讨长期护理中照顾者和居民对虐待老年人的看法，并强调在人口统计学变量以及护理设施类型方面，整体虐待感知存在显著差异。
该研究涉及 171 名照顾者和 245 名居住在固定设施中的老年人。使用了两份结构化问卷 - 一份针对照顾者，另一份针对机构化的老年居民，其问题和因素选择的初步验证基于探索性因素分析和判别有效性。统计分析中使用了参数和非参数检验，统计显著性设置为 p<0.05（双侧）。
我们发现照顾者和老年居民对虐待和忽视老年人的看法存在显著差异。具体而言，照顾者倾向于将不必要或不适当的医疗/护理程序视为虐待的指标，而老年居民则强调他们的个人物品被拿走和不适当的身体接触。根据护理设施，居民在长期护理单元中报告虐待/忽视的频率更高（21.4%），而在县拥有的养老院（11.4%）和私人养老院（12.1%）中则较低（p=0.001）。同样，照顾者在长期护理单元中报告虐待/忽视的频率更高（75.4%），而在县拥有的养老院（24.6%）和私人养老院（0%）中则较低（p=0.039）。轮班工作也是一个重要的预测因素，因为早晨护理人员更频繁地感知到虐待/忽视（p=0.011）。
这项研究表明，居民和照顾者在虐待/忽视感知方面存在截然不同的观点，这强调了需要制定基于证据的标准程序，以防止任何类型的虐待老年人行为。
