title: Substance abuse associated with elder abuse in the United States.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Substance abuse by either victim or perpetrator has long been associated with violence and abuse. Sparse research is available regarding elder abuse and its association with substance abuse.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to evaluate the association of state-reported domestic elder abuse with regional levels of substance abuse.
  
  
  METHODS
  Census demographic and elder abuse data were sorted into substate regions to align with the substance use treatment-planning regions for 2269 US counties. From the 2269 US counties there were 229 substate regions in which there were 213,444 investigations of abuse. For the other Ns (reports and substantiations) there were fewer counties and regions. See first sentence of data analyses and first sentence of results.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Elder abuse report rates ranged from .03 to .41% (80 regions), investigation rates .001 to .34% (229 regions), and substantiation rates 0 to .22% (184 regions). Elder abuse investigations and substantiations were associated with various forms of substance abuse. Higher investigation rates were significantly associated with a higher rate of any illicit drug use in the past month, a lower median household income, lower proportion of the population graduated high school, and higher population of Hispanics. Higher substantiation rates were significantly associated with higher rate of illicit drug use in the past month and higher population of Hispanics.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It may be worthwhile for administrators of violence programs to pay particular attention to substance abuse among their clients and in their community's environment, especially if older persons are involved.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Measures of documented elder abuse at the county level are minimal. To be able to associate substance abuse with elder abuse is a significant finding, realizing that the substance abuse can be by the victim or the perpetrator of elder abuse.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, 52242, USA.
authors.forename: Gerald J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Jogerst
authors.forename: Jeanette M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Daly
authors.forename: Lara J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Galloway
authors.forename: Shimin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Yinghui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004552:Elder Abuse / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology