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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Screening for elder abuse in dementia in the LASER-AD study
— prevalence, correlates and validation of instruments | | Author(s) | Claudia Cooper, Monica Manela, Cornelius Katona |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 23, no 3, March 2008 |
| Pages | pp 283-288 |
| Source | http://www.interscience.wiley.com |
| Keywords | Elder abuse ; Screening ; Dementia ; Evaluation ; London ; South East England. |
| Annotation | Several studies have investigated abusive behaviour by carers toward people with dementia, most using unvalidated scales. This study is part of a longitudinal study of people with AD and their carers from London and South East Region of England (LASER-AD), and aims to validate the acceptability and validity of the Modified Conflict Tactics Scale (MCTS) and abuse correlates. 86 people with AD and their family carers were interviewed. Carers were asked about the acceptability of the MCTS, validity of which was investigated by comparing scores to the Minimum Data Set (MDS) abuse screen (an objective measure) and testing hypotheses that MCTS score would correlate with the COPE dysfunctional coping scale but not carer education. 24 (27.9%) were identified as abuse cases by interview. No care recipients (CRs) assessed positive for abuse using the MDS screen. 72 participants (83.7%) thought that the scale was acceptable; 10 that it was neither acceptable nor unacceptable; and 3 that it was unacceptable. As hypothesised, MCTS scores correlated with the dysfunctional coping scale but not carer education. This is the most comprehensive study so far in this field. Carer male gender and burden, and greater CR irritability, cognitive impairment but less functional impairment predicted carer abusive behaviour. The findings appear to refute UK government elder abuse reduction policy, which assumes that few incidents of abuse arise from carer stress. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-080430203 A |
| Classmark | QNT: 3V: EA: 4C: 82L: 82Z |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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