It is generally agreed that healthcare workers are ideally positioned to recognize and diagnose cases of elder abuse. However, little is known about their knowledge and understanding of this issue. The objective of this study was to assess and compare the perceptions of different groups of healthcare workers toward elder abuse in Japan, using the Knowledge-Attitude-Behavior (KAB) model. Home-visit nurses, medical doctors, care managers, care workers, public health nurses, and social workers, with experience of dealing with elder abuse received self-administered questionnaire surveys that inquired regarding demographics, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding elder abuse. A total of 311 healthcare workers participated in this survey. To compare the differences among the groups, a one-way analysis of variance with a post-hoc Tukey’s test, and a Kruskal-Wallis with post-hoc Steel-Dwass tests were used in accordance with data normality. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to explore variables that predicted the healthcare workers’ perceptions, and covariance structure analysis was used to examine whether the KAB model can accurately predict healthcare workers’ perceptions. Multiple comparisons showed significant differences in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding elder abuse among the abovementioned six groups. Age, sex, and years of work related to the care of elderly were extracted as significant determinants of healthcare workers’ perceptions of elder abuse. The examination of the KAB model with covariance structure analysis yielded a model with strong goodness-of-fit. These findings emphasize the need to take effective measures to improve their perceptions as well as review the role of each healthcare worker so that they can be more concerned with and involved in the safeguarding of the elderly. Given the strong goodness-of-fit demonstrated by the KAB model, education of healthcare workers on both the knowledge of, and attitudes toward, elder abuse may help in improving healthcare workers’ behavior in dealing with elder abuse.

The results of validity testing established the preliminary validity of this assessment tool. In addition, as self-neglect is known to damage the well-being of older adults, six of the eight items assessing self-neglect were retained in the ATDEA despite their failure to meet the threshold I-CVI of .78. The remaining two self-neglect items were not included in the ATDEA because of excessively low I-CVI scores (< .70). Thus, the final version of the ATDEA includes 34 items. The authors recommend that nursing professionals use the ATDEA as a checklist to assess the presence of elder abuse and to discern the subtypes and severity of this abuse. When evaluating elder abuse, the higher the degree of severity, the greater the urgency to provide support.

Background: With the "super-aging" of society, the prevalence of elder abuse can be expected to come under greater scrutiny. It will be important, therefore, to evaluate the presence and severity of elder abuse so as to prevent abuse and provide greater support for families. Aim: The aim of this study is to identify acts of elder abuse from a literature review in order to develop items for an assessment tool for domestic elder abuse. Methods: For the literature search, ICHUSHI Web, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and PubMed were utilized with the keywords "elder abuse" and "elderly abuse". A search limited to original articles over the last five years containing descriptions of elder abuse was used in this study. In addition, through hand search, books and websites concerning elder abuse were also studied. Descriptions of the acts of elder abuse from the materials were extracted and categorized by content analysis based on seven subtypes of elder abuse (physical abuse, neglect, psychological abuse, sexual abuse, economical abuse, selfneglect, and social abuse). Results & Conclusions: The final analysis included 18 original articles, two books, and eight websites on elder abuse prevention. A total of 38 acts were extracted as items for the assessment tool, which can be used to evaluate the presence and severity of elder abuse. Further research will be needed to examine the validity and reliability of the assessment tool.

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