title: Interventions for preventing elder abuse: applying findings of a new Cochrane review.
abstract: There is evidence that elder abuse is a significant public health problem that is destined to grow as population age. Countries are considering how best to act and this requires an understanding of the complex causal mechanisms contributing to its occurrence and the identification of effective interventions which can potentially make a difference. Previously, a high quality synthesis of evidence for policy and practice has been missing. In this paper, we describe a new Cochrane review of interventions to prevent the occurrence or reoccurrence of elder abuse. Overall, the quality of the evidence available for decision making is very low and there is little to guide practice. Amongst the interventions, there is some evidence that teaching coping skills to family carers of persons with dementia might make the situation better. We argue that poor quality and wasteful research needs to be avoided, and front-line agencies be supported in undertaking comparative evaluation of their services.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and Social Work, Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Philip Robert
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Daniel Peter
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Francis
authors.affiliation: Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Malaya, Julius Centre University of Malaysia, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Noran Naqiah
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Mohd Hairi
authors.affiliation: Department of Primary Care Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Sajaratulnisah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Othman
authors.affiliation: Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Malaya, Julius Centre University of Malaysia, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Wan Yuen
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Choo
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D000975:Antioxidants; D004552:Elder Abuse; D065089:Glycoside Hydrolase Inhibitors; D006801:Humans; D008136:Longevity; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D051267:NF-E2-Related Factor 2
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants; D065089:Glycoside Hydrolase Inhibitors; D051267:NF-E2-Related Factor 2
keywords: Cochrane; elder abuse; elderly maltreatment; intervention; older people; systematic review