The Lancet, 2017, 5(2), e147–e156

For this systematic review and meta-analysis, the authors searched 14 databases, including PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL, EMBASE, and MEDLINE, using a comprehensive search strategy to identify elder abuse prevalence studies in the community published from inception to June 26, 2015. Studies reporting estimates of past-year abuse prevalence in adults aged 60 years or older were included in the analyses. Subgroup analysis and meta-regression were used to explore heterogeneity, with study quality assessed with the risk of bias tool.

Findings: Of the 38,544 studies initially identified, 52 were eligible for inclusion. These studies were geographically diverse (28 countries). The pooled prevalence rate for overall elder abuse was 15·7% (95% CI 12·8–19·3). The pooled prevalence estimate was 11·6% (8·1–16·3) for psychological abuse, 6·8% (5·0–9·2) for financial abuse, 4·2% (2·1–8·1) for neglect, 2·6% (1·6–4·4) for physical abuse, and 0·9% (0·6–1·4) for sexual abuse. Meta-analysis of studies that included overall abuse revealed heterogeneity. Significant associations were found between overall prevalence estimates and sample size, income classification, and method of data collection, but not with gender. (From the authors' abstract). Prevalence data comes from studies from 28 countries, including Canada, China, Ireland, Hong Kong, Mexico, United Kingdom and United States, but not Australia or New Zealand. Record #5902