Abuse in later life: viewpoints of illiterate rural older people

ABSTRACT

Elder abuse is the result of different socio-economic, cultural, psychological and individual factors. The aim of this study was to investigate the individual contexts which are relevant to elder abuse in a Kurdish rural community in Iran. The study was conducted based on qualitative approach. Potential and eligible participants consisting of 38 females and 18 males were selected through purposive sampling. Individual interviews as well as focus group discussions were applied for collecting data. Conventional content analysis was implemented by two independent researchers for analyzing data manually. Viewpoints of the participants were finally characterized into six themes including age, gender, interactive limitation, physical disability, multiple chronic difficulties, and adopting of passive status. The findings showed that personal conditions were the main factor which facilitate elder abuse and neglect. Learning the ethical norms and adopting supportive laws may eliminate all forms of neglect, abuse and violence against older people.

KEYWORDS:

• Elder abuse
• illiterate
• aged
• rural population
• neglect
• attitude

Acknowledgements

We really appreciate deputy of research and technology for their valuable supports. The authors would like to acknowledge all the older persons participating in this project as well as the authorities and personnel of health centre in Rahimkhan village for their generous cooperation with the researcher.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Narmin Khosravi http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8636-1170

Mehdi Rezaei http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5078-8364

Hossein Matlabi http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3090-3214

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences [grant number 5/53/5370–08/11/2015].