Identifying Injury Patterns Associated With Physical Elder Abuse: Analysis of Legally Adjudicated Cases.

Annals of Emergency Medicine
Tony RosenMark S Lachs

Abstract

Elder abuse is common and has serious health consequences but is underrecognized by health care providers. An important reason for this is difficulty in distinguishing between elder abuse and unintentional trauma. Our goal was to identify injury patterns associated with physical elder abuse in comparison with those of patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with unintentional falls. We partnered with a large, urban district attorney's office and examined medical, police, and legal records from successfully prosecuted cases of physical abuse of victims aged 60 years or older from 2001 to 2014. We prospectively enrolled patients who presented to a large, urban, academic ED after an unintentional fall. We matched 78 cases of elder abuse with visible injuries to 78 unintentional falls. Physical abuse victims were significantly more likely than unintentional fallers to have bruising (78% versus 54%) and injuries on the maxillofacial, dental, and neck area (67% versus 28%). Abuse victims were less likely to have fractures (8% versus 22%) or lower extremity injuries (9% versus 41%). Abuse victims were more likely to have maxillofacial, dental, or neck injuries combined with no upper and lower extremity injuries (50% versu...Continue Reading

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Citations

Apr 18, 2021·Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America·Nicole Cimino-Fiallos, Tony Rosen
May 5, 2021·Journal of the American Geriatrics Society·Jeanine M F Yonashiro-ChoDiana C Homeier

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