The Relation between Violence against Older Adult Women, their Quality of Life and Health Consequences

Abstract

Violence against older adult women is a serious public health and human rights concern. It occurs in one or more of the following ways: physical, sexual, emotional, and financial violence. Moreover, it can have a myriad of devastating consequences on health and wellbeing of the older adult women. Along with the immediate physical and emotional impacts of violence, older adult women's overall quality of life adversely affected, which can in turn, influence their participation and engagement in various aspects of life and society. Objective: Determine the relation between violence against older adult women, their quality of life and health consequences. Settings: The inpatient units and geriatric outpatient clinics of Mansoura University Medical Hospital, Mansoura University Main Hospital and Mansoura General and New General Hospital affiliated to the Ministry of Health. Subjects: The study was carried out on 294 older adult women aged 60 year and above. Tools: Data was collected using four tools, tool I (Older adult women's socio-demographic & clinical data structured interview schedule), tool II (Violence assessment structured interview schedule), tool III (Health consequences of violence against older adult women structured interview schedule) and tool IV (WHOQOL-BREF). Results: Nearly a quarter (23.8%) of the study older adult women suffered from violence. Psychological and economic violence were the most common types of violence reported by the study older adult women. A statistically significant relationship was found between violence and quality of life. Conclusion: Violence consequences on psychological health were reported by the majority of the study violated older adult women. The violated women reported poor QOL, while non-violated women reported good QOL with a statistically significant difference between the violated and non violated older adult women. Recommendations: Responsible senior nurses in the inpatient units and the outpatient clinics prepare posters illustrating methods of avoidance of and protection from violence for older adult women. Messages about violence against older adult women and methods of prevention and protection from violence should be delivered to the older adult women via mass media to raise awareness.