Association between supporting child and elder abuse in China

Abstract

Objective: To examine the association between child-supporting from their folks and elder abuse in China so as to provide evidence for prevention and control of elder abuse. Methods: Based on the third survey on the Status of Chinese women, organized by the All-China Women's Federation and the National Bureau of Statistics, 7 159 residents aged 65 and older were included and general information on supporting child and elder abuse were gathered. Chi-square test and logistic regression were used to investigate the association between supporting child from elderly and elder abuse. Results: The overall prevalence of elder abuse was 6.71%. Risks of elder people being abused by family numbers varied from different supporting child situations. After adjusting for potential confounding factors, ORs for the elderly appeared as follows: OR=1.99 (95%CI: 1.56-2.54) for those who only providing support to male children; OR=2.07 (95%CI: 1.51-3.79) for those only providing support to the female offspring and OR=2.32 (95% CI: 1.72-3.13) for those who did not support their children regardless of their sex identity. Elderly who provided support to their children on both sexes were exposed to lower risk of being abused than those who only supporting their male offspring. There was no significant difference appearing on the risk of elder abuse between those elderly who only supporting the male (OR=1.00) or the female offspring (OR=1.04, 95% CI: 0.63-1.71), among all the participants in our study. However, such associations were different in urban and rural areas. Conclusions: High prevalence of abuse was seen in China. The pattern of supporting child was associated with risk of elder abuse. Elderly who showed poor support to their children were under higher risk of being abused by their family members.