Ueno Daisuke, Daiku Yasuhiro, Eguchi Yoko, Iwata Minako, Amano Shoka, Ayani Nobutaka, Nakamura Kaeko, Kato Yuka, Matsuoka Teruyuki, Narumoto Jin
Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medical School, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.
Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
Front Psychiatry. 2021 Dec 20;12:685451. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.685451. eCollection 2021.
Research on elderly financial exploitation has mostly focused on financial abuse that occurs in families and other types of trusted relationships. As such, little is known about financial frauds and scams perpetrated by strangers. Financial fraud and scam prevention activities for older adults must be promoted, for which the correlation between the psychological, social, and cognitive characteristics of their vulnerability needs to be determined. The present study aimed to determine whether cognitive decline is a risk factor for scam vulnerability in older adults. Thus, we created a scam vulnerability scale for older adults with cognitive decline and analyzed the data to reveal the correlation between them, including inhibition and executive function. We conducted an interview survey with 50 older adults with cognitive decline (average age: 79.42 years, SD: 5.44) and 51 older adults without cognitive decline (average age: 76.12 years, SD: 5.82). The interview survey included the scam vulnerability scale, psychosocial questionnaires, and neuropsychological tests. The scale included six items with a four-point Likert scale based on a previous study. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that lower scores on the Japanese version of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-Jcog; indicating higher general cognitive function) correlated with higher scam vulnerability in the cognitive decline group ( = -0.46, < 0.001). In addition, men were found to be more vulnerable in both groups (cognitive decline group: = -0.29, = 0.015, cognitive non-decline group; = -0.32, = 0.018). Inhibition and executive function were found not to correlate significantly with scam vulnerability. These results suggest that mild cognitive decline correlates with higher scam vulnerability, whereas moderate to severe cognitive decline correlates with lower vulnerability, possibly because it makes understanding the scam attempt itself difficult. Older adults with mild cognitive decline and their families, particularly those visiting elderly care or outpatient facilities, should be notified of the scam vulnerability of older clients using the ADAS-Jcog score as an index to help them avoid victimization.
对老年人金融剥削的研究大多集中在家庭及其他类型信任关系中发生的金融虐待。因此，对于陌生人实施的金融欺诈和诈骗知之甚少。必须推动针对老年人的金融欺诈和诈骗预防活动，为此需要确定他们易受伤害的心理、社会和认知特征之间的相关性。本研究旨在确定认知衰退是否是老年人易受诈骗的风险因素。因此，我们为认知衰退的老年人创建了一个诈骗易感性量表，并分析数据以揭示它们之间的相关性，包括抑制和执行功能。我们对50名认知衰退的老年人（平均年龄：79.42岁，标准差：5.44）和51名无认知衰退的老年人（平均年龄：76.12岁，标准差：5.82）进行了访谈调查。访谈调查包括诈骗易感性量表、心理社会问卷和神经心理测试。该量表基于先前的研究包含六个采用四点李克特量表的项目。分层多元回归分析显示，在认知衰退组中，日本版阿尔茨海默病评估量表-认知子量表（ADAS-Jcog；得分越低表明总体认知功能越高）得分越低与诈骗易感性越高相关（r = -0.46，p < 0.001）。此外，发现两组中的男性都更易受伤害（认知衰退组：r = -0.29，p = 0.015，认知未衰退组；r = -0.32，p = 0.018）。发现抑制和执行功能与诈骗易感性无显著相关性。这些结果表明，轻度认知衰退与较高的诈骗易感性相关，而中度至重度认知衰退与较低的易感性相关，这可能是因为它使理解诈骗企图本身变得困难。应将轻度认知衰退的老年人及其家人（尤其是那些前往老年护理机构或门诊设施的人）使用ADAS-Jcog分数作为指标告知他们老年客户的诈骗易感性，以帮助他们避免受害。
