Abuse in the elderly

Abstract

Elder abuse has been identified as one of the most important researches in geriatric topics nowadays, this is due to the outstanding discrepancy that exists between the prevalence of elder abuse and its amount of cases reported. This illustrates the physician’s need to have a basic training in the detection of abuse cases. Accordingly, this article wishes to make known to professional health practitioners (whom in some way interact with elder people during its clinical practice) the definitions of elder abuse, risk factors, types of abuse, clinical presentations and management; being these crucial tools that indeed help prevent diminishing the quality of life in elderly patients, and even prevent in some cases fatal consequences.