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The Gerontologist 45:820-823 (2005)
© 2005 The Gerontological Society of America

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

John M. Heath, MD, AGSF1, Merle Brown, PhD, APN2, Fred A. Kobylarz, MD, MPH3 and Susan Castaño, MSW, LCSW4

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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 J Am Psychiatr Nurses AssocHome page
S. M. Strasser and T. Fulmer
The Clinical Presentation of Elder Neglect: What We Know and What We Can Do
Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, January 1, 2007; 12(6): 340 - 349.
[Abstract] [PDF]


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