Koga Chie, Tsuji Taishi, Hanazato Masamichi, Takasugi Tomo, Kondo Katsunori
Center for Preventive Medical Sciences, Chiba University, Chiba 260-8670, Japan.
Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Tsukuba.
Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2022 May-Jun;100:104656. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2022.104656. Epub 2022 Feb 9.
Elder abuse is a growing global public health concern. Previous studies have reported that elder abuse increases the risk of dementia; however, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have investigated the association between different types of abuse and dementia onset yet. This study, therefore, investigated the association between physical, psychological, and financial abuses and dementia onset in independent older adults in Japan.
A 6-year prospective cohort data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES) were collected in 2010 through a mail survey conducted among 5,674 men and 6,562 women aged ≥65 years across Japan. Dementia was assessed using the nationally standardized dementia scale proposed by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Poisson regression analysis was performed separately for each type of abuse to calculate the incidence rate ratios and 95% confidence intervals.
During follow-up, 552 (9.7%) men and 728 (11.1%) women developed dementia. After adjusting for potential confounders, participants who experienced financial abuse were 1.53 (1.09-2.16) times more likely to develop dementia than those who did not. On the other hand, participants who experienced physical abuse were 1.53 (0.92-2.56) times more likely and those who experienced psychological abuse were 0.98 (0.82-1.17) times less likely to develop dementia than participants who did not experience such abuses. However, the difference was not significant.
Financial abuse may promote dementia among older adults in Japan, suggesting that preventing this abuse may help prevent dementia onset. However, further studies with larger data sets are warranted.
老年人虐待是一个日益严重的全球公共卫生问题。以往研究报告称，老年人虐待会增加患痴呆症的风险；然而，据我们所知，尚无研究调查不同类型的虐待与痴呆症发病之间的关联。因此，本研究调查了日本独立老年人身体虐待、心理虐待和经济虐待与痴呆症发病之间的关联。
2010年通过对日本全国5674名男性和6562名65岁及以上女性进行邮寄调查，收集了来自日本老年学评估研究（JAGES）的6年前瞻性队列数据。使用厚生劳动省提出的全国标准化痴呆量表评估痴呆症。对每种虐待类型分别进行泊松回归分析，以计算发病率比和95%置信区间。
在随访期间，552名（9.7%）男性和728名（11.1%）女性患上痴呆症。在对潜在混杂因素进行调整后，遭受经济虐待的参与者患痴呆症的可能性是未遭受经济虐待者的1.53倍（1.09 - 2.16）。另一方面，遭受身体虐待的参与者患痴呆症的可能性是未遭受此类虐待者的1.53倍（0.92 - 2.56），而遭受心理虐待的参与者患痴呆症的可能性比未遭受此类虐待者低0.98倍（0.82 - 1.17）。然而，差异并不显著。
经济虐待可能会促使日本老年人患痴呆症，这表明预防这种虐待可能有助于预防痴呆症的发病。然而，需要进一步开展更大数据集的研究。
