Intra family mistreatment toward elder people in the Polyclinic Reynold García

Abstract

Introduction: elder people mistreatment emerges as a social problem 
since a few years ago, not because it did not exist before, but 
because in many cases it exists inside the family, but it is not 
perceived from outside.
Objective: identifying intra family mistreatment toward elder people.
Materials and methods: a descriptive, cross-sectional study was  carried out in 60 old adults elder than 60 years, belonging to Family  Physician Consultation Nr. 87, of the Policlinic Reynold García,  health area Versalles, in the city of Matanzas, in the period between  April 2014 and April 2015. The analyzed variables were: age, sex,  maltreatment existence, kinds of maltreatment and risk factors related 
with it. The results were given in tables and expressed in absolute  and relative numbers.
Results: The intra family violence prevalence was 100 % in elder  people. The ages between 70 and 79 years were the most affected ones. It behaved in the same form for both sexes (50 %). Elder people with  lower scholarship were the most vulnerable ones to maltreatment. 
Psychological maltreatment affected 100 % of the enquired people,  followed by negligence or abandonment (93.3 %), elder people  depression (56.7 %) and deficient socio-family support (40 %). 38.3 %  were older than 75 years old, risk factor that was the most related   with the probability of elder people being target of any kind of  maltreatment.
Conclusions: the total of the inquired people were victims of 
maltreatment, in spite of the sex.  The most vulnerable elder people were the ones with low scholarship level, predominating psychological  violence, negligence and abandonment. Feelings of physical and emotional incapability to stand the effort to carry out, alcohol and  psycho drugs abuse, economical or dwelling dependence were the factors  that led them to become dependants on the relative, and also the ones  that were more related with elder people maltreatment.