A prospective community-based pilot study of risk factors for the investigation of elder mistreatment.

PURPOSE: To identify risk factors for the investigation of elder abuse, neglect, self-neglect, exploitation, and abandonment in a population-based observational cohort of community living elders. STUDY POPULATION: Population-based sample of 2,812 community-living men and women in New Haven, Connecticut who were over age 65 in 1982. METHODS: Matching process whereby cohort members who were investigated by Connecticut's State Ombudsman on Aging in 1985 or 1986 were identified. ANALYSIS: Relative risks for ombudsman investigation in 1985 or 1986 were calculated based on risk factors status at baseline interview in 1982. RESULTS: Sixty-eight (2.4%) members of the cohort received investigation. Features at cohort entry significantly associated with investigation in multiple logistic regression included: requiring assistance with feeding (Adjusted OR 3.5, 95% CI 1.2, 11.7), being a minority elder (Adj. OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.4, 2.8), over age 75 at cohort inception (Adj. OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.1, 3.1), and having a poor social network as defined by a social network index (Adj. OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.0, 2.7). When stratified by race, requiring assistance with feeding was associated with ombudsman investigation in minority elders (Adj. OR 10.8, 95% CI 2.8, 40.5) but not non-minority elders (Adj. OR 1.1, 95% CI 0.5, 7.5). CONCLUSION: Functional disability, minority status, older age, and poor social networks were associated with investigation for elder mistreatment in this prospective, community-based population of men and women over the age of 65.