Department of Emergency Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College / NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, 525 East 68th Street, Room M130, New York, NY, 10065, USA.
Department of Population Health Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, 402 E 67th Street, New York, NY, USA.
Injury. 2023 Aug;54(8):110845. doi: 10.1016/j.injury.2023.110845. Epub 2023 May 24.
Elder abuse is common, but many characteristics have not been well-described, including injury mechanisms and weapons in physical abuse. Better understanding of these may improve identification of elder abuse among purportedly unintentional injuries. Our goal was to describe mechanisms of injury and weapons used and their relation to injury patterns.
We partnered with District Attorney's offices in 3 counties and systematically examined medical, police, and legal records from 164 successfully prosecuted physical abuse cases of victims aged ≥60 from 2001 to 2014.
Victims sustained 680 injuries (mean 4.1, median 2.0, range 1-35). Most common mechanisms were: blunt assault with hand/fist (44.5%), push/shove, fall during altercation (27.4%), and blunt assault with object (15.2%). Perpetrators more commonly used body parts as weapons (72.6%) than objects (23.8%). Most commonly used body parts were: open hands (55.5% of victims sustaining injuries from body parts), closed fists (53.8%), and feet (16.0%). Most commonly used objects were: knives (35.9% of victims sustaining injuries from objects) and telephones (10.3%). The most frequent mechanism/injury location pair was maxillofacial/dental/neck injury by blunt assault with hand/fist (20.0% of all injuries). The most frequent mechanism/injury type pair was bruising by blunt assault with hand/fist (15.1% of all injuries). Blunt assault with hand/fist injury was positively associated with victim female sex (OR: 2.27, CI: [1.08 - 4.95]; p = 0.031), while blunt assault with object mechanisms was inversely associated with victim female sex (OR: 0.32, CI: [0.12 - 0.81]; p = 0.017).
Physical elder abuse victims are more commonly assaulted with an abuser's body part than an object, and the mechanisms and weapons used impact patterns of injury.
虐待老人很常见，但许多特征尚未得到很好的描述，包括身体虐待中的伤害机制和武器。更好地了解这些情况可能会提高对据称是意外伤害中虐待老人的识别能力。我们的目标是描述伤害机制和使用的武器及其与伤害模式的关系。
我们与 3 个县的地方检察官办公室合作，从 2001 年至 2014 年，系统地检查了 164 起成功起诉的 60 岁及以上身体虐待案件的受害者的医疗、警察和法律记录。
受害者共发生 680 次伤害（平均 4.1 次，中位数 2.0 次，范围 1-35 次）。最常见的机制是：用手/拳头猛击（44.5%）、推/搡、争吵中摔倒（27.4%）和用物体猛击（15.2%）。肇事者更常使用身体部位作为武器（72.6%）而不是物体（23.8%）。最常使用的身体部位是：张开的手（55.5%的受害者因身体部位受伤）、紧握的拳头（53.8%）和脚（16.0%）。最常使用的物体是：刀（35.9%的受害者因物体受伤）和电话（10.3%）。最常见的机制/受伤部位组合是面部/牙齿/颈部因手/拳头猛击造成的损伤（所有伤害的 20.0%）。最常见的机制/伤害类型组合是用手/拳头猛击造成的瘀伤（所有伤害的 15.1%）。用手/拳头猛击造成的伤害与受害者的女性性别呈正相关（OR：2.27，CI：[1.08-4.95]；p=0.031），而用物体猛击造成的伤害与受害者的女性性别呈负相关（OR：0.32，CI：[0.12-0.81]；p=0.017）。
身体虐待老人的受害者更常被施虐者的身体部位而非物体殴打，而所使用的机制和武器会影响伤害模式。
