Assessing the Prevalence and Patterns of Elder’s Abuse in Imo State, Nigeria: A Rural – Urban Comparative Study

This study highlighted the 12-months prevalence of elder abuse in rural and urban communities in Imo State and also compared the pattern of elder abuse in both communities.

A cross-sectional study of 371 rural and 314 urban participants aged 60 years and above was conducted between first week of April and last week of June, 2015. Information collated was on abuse types using interviewer administered questionnaire. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and chi-square. The level of statistical significance (p- value) was set at < 0.05. Participants were recruited using multi-stage random sampling technique.

The prevalence of elder abuse in the previous 12 months was 14.7% and 9.8% in the rural and urban communities respectively. The pattern of abuse types was financial abuse 30.2%, emotional abuse 26.0%, physical abuse 16.7%, neglect 11.9%, social abuse 1.8% and sexual abuse 1.6% in the rural communities. The pattern in urban communities was financial abuse 29.6%, neglect 13.0%, emotional abuse 8.3%, physical abuse 5.7%, sexual abuse 1.3% and social abuse 0.9%.

In conclusion, this study has shown that abuse of the elderly is quite prevalent in both the rural and urban communities. Policies geared towards protecting these vulnerable senior citizens at both state and federal level will help to minimize this menace.