A systematic review on community-based interventions for elder abuse and neglect.
Elder abuse and neglect is a societal issue that requires prevention and intervention strategies at the practice and policy level. A systematic review on the efficacy of community-based elder abuse interventions was undertaken to advance the state of knowledge in the field. The peer-reviewed literature between 2009 and December 2015 were searched across four databases. Two raters independently reviewed all articles, assessed their methodological quality, and used a modified Sackett Scale to assign levels of evidence. Four thousand nine hundred and five articles were identified; nine were selected for inclusion. Although there was Level-1 evidence for psychological interventions (n = 2), only one study on strategies for relatives (START) led to a reported decrease in elder abuse. There was Level-4 evidence for conservatorship, an elder abuse intervention/prevention program (ECARE), and a multidisciplinary intervention (n = 4), in which one study yielded significant decreases in elder abuse and/or neglect. The remaining three were classified as Level-5 evidence (n = 3) for elder mediation and multidisciplinary interventions. There are limited studies with high levels of evidence for interventions that decrease elder abuse and neglect. The scarcity of community-based interventions for older adults and caregivers highlights the need for further work to elevate the quality of studies.
a Institute for Life Course and Aging, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work , University of Toronto , Toronto , Ontario , Canada.
Gwendolyn
G
Fearing
b School of Public Health and Health Systems , University of Waterloo , Waterloo , Ontario , Canada.
Christine L
CL
Sheppard
a Institute for Life Course and Aging, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work , University of Toronto , Toronto , Ontario , Canada.
Lynn
L
McDonald
c School of Social Work , Université de Sherbrooke , Sherbrooke , Québec , Canada.
Marie
M
Beaulieu
d St. John's Rehab Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre , Toronto , Ontario , Canada.|e School of Kinesiology and Health Science, Faculty of Health , York University , Toronto , Ontario , Canada.|f Lyndhurst Centre, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute , University Health Network , Toronto , Ontario , Canada.|g Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine , University of Toronto , Toronto , Ontario , Canada.
Sander L
0000-0002-9139-9250
SL
Hitzig
D000368:Aged; D004552:Elder Abuse / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000379:methods*
Aged; early intervention; elder abuse; elder neglect; intervention study and control; prevention and control; systematic review