[Violence perpetrated against the elderly and health-related quality of life: a populational study in the city of São Paulo, Brazil].

The scope of this work was to identify the prevalence of domestic violence against non-institutionalized elderly individuals, and to establish if violence is an independent factor associated with the Physical Component (PC) and Mental Component (MC) scores of the Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) of these elderly individuals. It is a cross-sectional epidemiologic and population-based investigation that is part of the SABE (Wellbeing, Health and Aging) study. A sample of 1,126 elderly individuals filled out the Short-Form 12 (SF-12) Health Survey, namely a generic instrument that assesses HRQOL through the Physical and Mental components. The prevalence of domestic violence against of the elderly was 10% (CI 95% 9.1-13.6). In the multiple analyses, violence against the elderly was significantly associated to the MC (β = -3.03; p = 0.000) and to the PC (β = -1.69; p = 0.017) of HRQOL, independently of the sociodemographic, health, family support, and functional incapacity covariables. The prevalence of domestic violence was high and compromised the physical and mental health of the elderly.