Longitudinal risk factors for elder abuse

Elder abuse is a pervasive problem affecting a growing older adult population that carries serious consequences, including mortality and physical/mental health morbidities. The current state of basic elder abuse science on risk factors to inform the development of effective prevention interventions is constrained by a literature with substantial methodological limitations. The field lacks longitudinal population-based research that provides generalizable and causally-inferred risk factor information. Further, population-based research to date has generally limited elder abuse measurement to binary (no/yes) outcomes that obscure the variation in severity characterizing this issue. The goal of the proposed study is to overcome long-standing methodological limitations in the elder abuse literature to advance basic science on risk factors and to integrate severity into our understanding of the problem.