Prevalence and Pattern of Elder Abuse in Awe, Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Violence against the elderly is a serious public health problem, a silent epidemic that is often a neglected by the society.  Such abuses did not only stop at reducing quality of life of the elderly, in extreme cases, they even result in death. The  study was aimed at investigating the prevalence and pattern of elder abuse in Awe, Nasarawa state, Nigeria. Descriptive  research design was used for the study; Systematic sampling technique was employed to select a sample of 330  respondents for the study and structured pretested questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents, where  91% (300) of the questionnaires were successfully retrieved and descriptive statistical tools were used to analyze  the data. From the result, 48.3% were aged between 60-65 years, 69% were females, 40.7% were Hausa by ethnic  extraction and 64% had Secondary School Certificate/Grade II as highest educational qualification. Most of the  respondents (93.7%) experienced elder abuse, 75.8% reported the experience of psychological abuse, 56.2% experienced  physical abuse, 55.5% experienced financial exploitation and only 30.6% reported the experience of sexual  abuse. Based on intensity, majority of cases of physical abuse were of moderate intensity (73.5%) and only 5% were  severe, 71.5% of the respondents reported the experience of severe psychological abuse, 35.2% experienced severe  neglect. Of the respondents who experienced sexual abuse, 52% reported moderate abuse and 18.7% reported severe  abuse. Spearman’s correlation analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between age and experiences of  psychological abuse and neglect (p<0.05). Being female had a positive correlation with experience of psychological  abuse, neglect and sexual abuse (p<0.05). Level of education had a significant negative correlation with experiences of  financial exploitation and sexual abuse, while being married had a significant positive correlation with experience of  physical abuse. Having a chronic illness had a significant positive correlation with experiences of physical abuse,  psychological abuse and neglect (p<0.05). The paper recommends that the public and private sectors should establish  nursing homes for the elderly at least one in each LGA to help in shifting the task of care from the immediate family to professionals in a more elderly friendly setting. Also cultural and religious reorientation programmes should be  instituted to bring back the traditional social support system that revered the elderly in African societies.