Department of Public Health, School of health, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran.
Cancer Research Center, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran.
BMC Geriatr. 2023 Dec 18;23(1):869. doi: 10.1186/s12877-023-04541-6.
Many studies have investigated the relationship between social support and the prevention of elder abuse; however, their results are somehow inconsistent in terms of the association. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate the published studies on the relationship between social support and the prevention of elder maltreatment.
An electronic search was conducted until January 2023, using such databases as PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. The present research included cross-sectional, longitudinal, and case-control studies. Study selection, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment were conducted by two researchers independently. The Newcastle-Ottawa checklist was utilized to evaluate the quality of studies. The random effects model was employed to perform a meta-analysis.
In total, 32 studies were included in this systematic review, out of which 26 articles were eligible for meta-analysis. The results showed that 68.75% of the studies were of high quality, and there is a significant relationship between social support and elder maltreatment. Accordingly, the lack of social support increased overall maltreatment (odds ratio: 1.24, 95% confidence interval: 1.16-1.33; I = 92.3%, p = 0.000)). Moreover, lack of social support had an increasing effect on the level of psychological abuse (1.55, 1.18-2.04; 88.7%, p = 0.000), physical abuse (1.31, 0.42-4.11; 76.3%, p = 0.005), and neglect (2.02, 0.86-4.72; 87.9%, p = 0.000), which shows heterogeneities among the results of the included studies. On the contrary, the lack of social support showed a decreasing effect on financial abuse (0.92, 0.70-1.21; 62.1%, p = 0.022).
This systematic review provides evidence that social support in the form of structural or functional support may plays an important role in improving the quality of life of the elderly.
许多研究调查了社会支持与预防虐待老年人之间的关系；然而，它们在关联方面的结果有些不一致。本系统评价和荟萃分析旨在调查关于社会支持与预防虐待老年人关系的已发表研究。
使用 PubMed、Scopus 和 Web of Science 等数据库进行电子检索，直到 2023 年 1 月。本研究包括横断面、纵向和病例对照研究。两名研究人员独立进行研究选择、数据提取和偏倚风险评估。使用纽卡斯尔-渥太华清单评估研究质量。采用随机效应模型进行荟萃分析。
本系统评价共纳入 32 项研究，其中 26 项研究符合荟萃分析条件。结果表明，68.75%的研究质量较高，社会支持与虐待老年人之间存在显著关系。因此，缺乏社会支持会增加总体虐待（比值比：1.24，95%置信区间：1.16-1.33；I=92.3%，p=0.000）。此外，缺乏社会支持对心理虐待（1.55，1.18-2.04；88.7%，p=0.000）、身体虐待（1.31，0.42-4.11；76.3%，p=0.005）和忽视（2.02，0.86-4.72；87.9%，p=0.000）的水平有增加作用，这表明纳入研究的结果存在异质性。相反，缺乏社会支持对经济虐待有降低作用（0.92，0.70-1.21；62.1%，p=0.022）。
本系统评价提供的证据表明，以结构性或功能性支持形式提供的社会支持可能在提高老年人生活质量方面发挥重要作用。
