ABSTRACT

Searching for clinical manifestations of elder abuse may help healthcare professionals identify cases of elder abuse. The aim of the present study was to explore characteristics of older patients with fractures that increase the likelihood that the fracture was associated with abuse. This is a retrospective chart review study of 1,000 patients aged 65 and older who presented to an emergency department in northern-central Israel with a fracture during 2019. The chart review included participant characteristics – sociodemographic data, medical data, data regarding the fracture, and data on the presence of forensic markers of elder abuse in individual patients. Descriptive statistics and regression models were used for the analyses. Older age, presence of dementia, and hand and facial fractures were associated with the presence of forensic markers, and were also found to predict having at least one forensic factor. This study provides further support for the creation of clinical guidelines for identification of elder abuse.

摘要

寻找虐待老人的临床表现可能有助于医疗保健专业人员识别虐待老人的案例。本研究的目的是探索老年骨折患者的特征，这些特征增加了骨折与虐待相关的可能性。这是一项回顾性图表审查研究，涉及 1,000 名 65 岁及以上的患者，这些患者在 2019 年因骨折在以色列中北部急诊室就诊。图表审查包括参与者特征——社会人口学数据、医疗数据、骨折相关数据以及个别患者中存在虐待老年人的法医标志的数据。描述性统计和回归模型用于分析。年龄较大、痴呆、手部和面部骨折与法医标记的存在有关，并且还被发现可以预测至少有一个法医因素。这项研究为制定识别老年人虐待的临床指南提供了进一步的支持。