Abstract

Older adults are more susceptible to acts of violence. Elder abuse is associated with sociodemographic conditions such as sex, education level, income, living conditions, and the existence or absence of support and protection networks. This was a cross-sectional study of a descriptive and observational nature aimed at identifying the relationship between sociodemographic variables and violence among older adults in Brazil. A total of 237 older adults were interviewed; the age ranged from 60 to 93 years, most were women (69.9%), white (48.1%), married (38%), illiterate (44.3%), Catholic (62%), had low incomes (46%), and lived with at least one family member (89%). The very old were among those who suffered the most violence. Regarding the relationship among variables, we observed that psychological violence, physical assault, abandonment, self-neglect, and financial abuse presented p < 0.05, meaning there was a significant association between occurrence of mistreatment and the analyzed sociodemographic variables such as sex, having children, and alcohol use. Thus, the study concluded that sociodemographic variables can be related to the occurrence of older people violence and needs to be considered in the development of care plans.