1. The prevalence of undiagnosed geriatric health conditions among adult protective service clients
- Author
-
John M. Heath, Susan Castaño, Fred A. Kobylarz, and Merle Brown
- Subjects
Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Social Work ,Cross-sectional study ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Elder Abuse ,Neglect ,Cohort Studies ,Medicine ,Humans ,Psychiatry ,Adult Protective Services ,Geriatric Assessment ,Depression (differential diagnoses) ,media_common ,Aged ,Retrospective Studies ,Geriatrics ,New Jersey ,business.industry ,Retrospective cohort study ,General Medicine ,Elder abuse ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,Female ,Geriatrics and Gerontology ,business ,Gerontology ,Cohort study - Abstract
Purpose: We sought to determine the prevalence of remediable health conditions from in-home geriatric assessments of referred adult protective service (APS) clients suffering elder mistreatment. Design and Methods: We used a retrospective cohort study of 21 1 APS clients (74% female; age, M = 77 years) in two central New Jersey counties. Results: Dementia was the most frequent diagnosis (62% prevalence) and was positively correlated with occurrences of financial exploitation (R= .199; p= .01) and caregiver neglect (R = .174; p= .03) among female APS clients. Depression (37% prevalence), hypertension (36%), involuntary weight loss (34%), pain (32%), and falling (26%) all appeared equally distributed, though urinary incontinence (23% prevalence) was strongly correlated with circumstances of caregiver neglect (R = .31; p = .003). Implications: This new effort to link APS workers with geriatric clinicians conducting in-home health assessments proved effective for identifying a high prevalence of remediable health conditions among APS clients suffering various manifestations of elder mistreatment.
- Published
- 2005