Mechanisms and weapons in physical elder abuse injuries: Findings from legally adjudicated cases.
Elder abuse
Injury patterns
Mechanisms of injury
Journal
Injury
ISSN: 1879-0267
Titre abrégé: Injury
Pays: Netherlands
ID NLM: 0226040
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
Aug 2023
Aug 2023
Historique:
received:
15
09
2022
revised:
16
05
2023
accepted:
22
05
2023
pmc-release:
01
08
2024
medline:
24
7
2023
pubmed:
10
6
2023
entrez:
9
6
2023
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Elder abuse is common, but many characteristics have not been well-described, including injury mechanisms and weapons in physical abuse. Better understanding of these may improve identification of elder abuse among purportedly unintentional injuries. Our goal was to describe mechanisms of injury and weapons used and their relation to injury patterns. We partnered with District Attorney's offices in 3 counties and systematically examined medical, police, and legal records from 164 successfully prosecuted physical abuse cases of victims aged ≥60 from 2001 to 2014. Victims sustained 680 injuries (mean 4.1, median 2.0, range 1-35). Most common mechanisms were: blunt assault with hand/fist (44.5%), push/shove, fall during altercation (27.4%), and blunt assault with object (15.2%). Perpetrators more commonly used body parts as weapons (72.6%) than objects (23.8%). Most commonly used body parts were: open hands (55.5% of victims sustaining injuries from body parts), closed fists (53.8%), and feet (16.0%). Most commonly used objects were: knives (35.9% of victims sustaining injuries from objects) and telephones (10.3%). The most frequent mechanism/injury location pair was maxillofacial/dental/neck injury by blunt assault with hand/fist (20.0% of all injuries). The most frequent mechanism/injury type pair was bruising by blunt assault with hand/fist (15.1% of all injuries). Blunt assault with hand/fist injury was positively associated with victim female sex (OR: 2.27, CI: [1.08 - 4.95]; p = 0.031), while blunt assault with object mechanisms was inversely associated with victim female sex (OR: 0.32, CI: [0.12 - 0.81]; p = 0.017). Physical elder abuse victims are more commonly assaulted with an abuser's body part than an object, and the mechanisms and weapons used impact patterns of injury.
Identifiants
pubmed: 37296012
pii: S0020-1383(23)00513-2
doi: 10.1016/j.injury.2023.110845
pmc: PMC10527085
mid: NIHMS1906912
pii:
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
110845Subventions
Organisme : NIA NIH HHS
ID : K76 AG054866
Pays : United States
Organisme : NIA NIH HHS
ID : R03 AG048109
Pays : United States
Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
Declaration of Competing Interest None declared.
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