Prevalence and associated factors of elder abuse in family caregivers of older people with dementia in central China cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objective: To explore the abuse risk and related important determinants among older people with dementia in central China.

Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, a sample of 158 family caregivers of older people with dementia was conveniently recruited from the Clinical Medicine Research Center of Dementia and Cognitive Impairment in Hubei Province, China. A social-demographic questionnaire, the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ), the Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), the Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI), and the Caregiver Abuse Screen (CASE) were used for data collection. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U tests, Kruskal-Wallis tests, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, and logistic regression analysis were used for the data analyses.

Results: The results demonstrate that 77.8% reported a risk of the abuse of older people with dementia. Moreover, positive and negative reactions, subjective support, and emotional, social, and physical burden were associated with family caregivers' abusive behaviours.

Conclusion: This was a study conducted to examine the risk of the abuse of older people with dementia by family caregivers in central China. Elder abuse is prevalent among people with dementia. The present results confirmed the need to focus on family caregiver burden, coping styles, and social support in future interventions to prevent elder abuse.

Keywords: coping; dementia; elder abuse; family care; social support.