Violence against the elderly: a concept analysis utilising Walker and Avant’s approach

Abstract

Background. Violence against the elderly is one of the major social health problems in today’s societies, and its incidence has increased sharply in the last two decades. There are numerous challenges related to this issue. Objectives. The present study wasn conducted to analyse the concept of violence against the elderly. Material and methods. The present study was conducted using Walker and avant’s approach in eight steps by searching and analysing studies from valid databases using the keywords elderly people, elderly person, violence, aggression, elderly, older, adult, geriatric, abuse, mistreatment violence and the elderly and elder abuse. The inclusion criteria included related Persian and English studies car ried out between 2000 and 2020. Finally, as many as 63 articles related to the concept were analysed. Results. Violence against the elderly can be defined as injury or discomfort caused by an action and its repetition or failure to take ac tion in an event for which appropriate action had been expected; the human dignity of an elderly person is, thus, threatened. such vio lence is understood as emotional-mental violence, self-neglect, physical violence, economic violence, sexual violence, neglect and inat -tention. Moreover, its consequences are personal burnout and helplessness, family dysfunction and socially harmful consequences. Conclusions. defining a concept derived from violence against the elderly can help health workers, especially nurses, have a better understanding about this issue; they will, thus, conduct studies, interventions and evaluations of nursing actions to promote the elderly health.