Elder abuse and hospitalization in rural Malaysia

• Published in: PLoS ONE
• Main Author: Firdaus M.A.M.; Yunus R.M.; Hairi N.N.; Choo W.Y.; Hairi F.; Suddin L.S.; Sooryanarayana R.; Ismail N.; Peramalah D.; Ali Z.M.; Ahmad S.N.; Razak I.A.; Othman S.; Bulgiba A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science 2022
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85132841079&doi=10.1371%2fjournal.pone.0270163&partnerID=40&md5=64fddfea31ae763a807e3cfc7dde0062

Our study aims to describe and determine factors associated with hospitalization among victims of elder abuse and neglect (EAN) in rural Malaysia. A cross sectional study based on the baseline data of the Malaysian Elder Mistreatment Project (MAESTRO) collected from November 2013 until July 2014 involving 1927 older adults in Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan was conducted. EAN was determined using the modified Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) and hospitalization rates were determined based on self-report. The prevalence of overall EAN was 8.1% (95%CI 6.9–9.3). Among male respondents, 9.5% revealed history of abuse and among female respondents, 7.2% reported experiencing EAN. The annual hospitalization rates per 100 persons within the past one year among EAN victims and non-victims were 18 per 100 persons (SD = 46.1) and 15 per 100 persons (SD = 64.1) respectively. Among respondents with history of EAN, 16.0% (n = 21) had been hospitalized in the past 12 months while among respondents with no EAN experience, 10.2% (n = 153) were hospitalized. Multivariable analyses using Poisson regression did not show any significant association between EAN and hospitalization. This could be due to the complex interactions between medical and social circumstances that play a role in hospital admissions, factors affecting the health care system, and access to health care among EAN victims. © 2022 Firdaus et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.