Nearly 13% of seniors suffer some kind of abuse, usually in the form of verbal mistreatment, according to a recent report.
A total of 9% reported verbal abuse and 3.5% said they have been financially taken advantage of, according to the report. Among the seniors surveyed, 0.2% claimed physical abuse. A University of Chicago team conducted the research. Findings were based on the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project, which interviewed more than 3,000 community-dwelling seniors aged 57 to 85. Disabled seniors are 13% more likely to be verbally mistreated, and women are more than twice as likely as men to report a verbal assault, the report found.
More often than not, the offending party is unrelated to the victim. Of those who reported verbal mistreatment, 57% said that the mistreating party was someone other than a spouse, parent, or child. A total of 56% of those who reported financial mistreatment said that someone other than a member of their immediate family was responsible. The report appears in the most recent issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences.
