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The Prevalence of Undiagnosed Geriatric Health Conditions Among Adult Protective Service Clients

Correspondence: Address correspondence to J. Heath, MD, One RWJ Place, Box 19, New Brunswick, NJ 08903-0019. E-mail: Heathjm{at}UMDNJ.edu

Purpose: We sought to determine the prevalence of remediable health conditions from in-home geriatric assessments of referred adult protective service (APS) clients suffering elder mistreatment. Design and Methods: We used a retrospective cohort study of 211 APS clients (74% female; age, M = 77 years) in two central New Jersey counties. Results: Dementia was the most frequent diagnosis (62% prevalence) and was positively correlated with occurrences of financial exploitation (R =.199; p =.01) and caregiver neglect (R =.174; p =.03) among female APS clients. Depression (37% prevalence), hypertension (36%), involuntary weight loss (34%), pain (32%), and falling (26%) all appeared equally distributed, though urinary incontinence (23% prevalence) was strongly correlated with circumstances of caregiver neglect (R =.31; p =.003). Implications: This new effort to link APS workers with geriatric clinicians conducting in-home health assessments proved effective for identifying a high prevalence of remediable health conditions among APS clients suffering various manifestations of elder mistreatment.

Key Words: Elder abuse and neglect • Elder mistreatment • Geriatric assessment • Adult protective services

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