IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0349515.html

Prevalence and risk factors of abuse against older adult women: A cross-sectional community study in Eastern Andalusia, Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Yolanda María de la Fuente-Robles
  • Adrián Jesús Ricoy-Cano
  • María Dolores Muñoz-de-Dios
  • Marta García-Domingo

Abstract

Abuse against older adult women remains a serious public health issue and a flagrant violation of human rights in Spain. However, research specifically addressing abuse against older adult women is still limited, contributing to a significant gap in scientific knowledge. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of overall abuse, and its different forms, experienced by older adult women (≥ 60 years) in a specific area of Eastern Andalusia, Spain, over the past twelve months, and to identify associated risk factors. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted with 209 non-institutionalised older adult women, using the Geriatric Mistreatment Scale and collecting sociodemographic and lifestyle data. A high prevalence of abuse was found, with 49.3% of participants reporting some type of abuse, with psychological abuse being the most common (36.4%), followed by physical (23.0%), economic (13.9%), sexual (11.0%) and neglect (7.7%). Factors such as age, marital status, self-perceived health status and feelings of loneliness were identified as significant risk factors. These findings highlight the need to strengthen detection, prevention and response strategies within community and household settings, particularly by equipping primary care, social services and other community-based professionals—especially social workers—with the skills to identify both overt and subtle forms of abuse experienced by older adult women living at home.

Suggested Citation

  • Yolanda María de la Fuente-Robles & Adrián Jesús Ricoy-Cano & María Dolores Muñoz-de-Dios & Marta García-Domingo, 2026. "Prevalence and risk factors of abuse against older adult women: A cross-sectional community study in Eastern Andalusia, Spain," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 21(5), pages 1-21, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0349515
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0349515
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0349515
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0349515&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0349515?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bilge Erten & Pinar Keskin, 2022. "Does Knowledge Empower? Education, Legal Awareness, and Intimate Partner Violence," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 29-59, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. de Assis, Dércio & Ghosh, Arpita & Oreffice, Sonia & Quintana-Domeque, Climent, 2025. "Non-Fatal Strangulation Laws and Intimate Partner Homicides," IZA Discussion Papers 18006, IZA Network @ LISER.
    2. Dércio de Assis & Arpita Ghosh & Sonia Oreffice & Climent Quintana-Domeque, 2025. "Disrupting Violence, Protecting Lives: Strangulation Laws and Intimate Partner Homicides," Discussion Papers 2501, University of Exeter, Department of Economics, revised 20 May 2026.
    3. Mustafa Özer & Jan Fidrmuc & Mehmet Ali Eryurt, 2023. "Education and domestic violence: Evidence from a natural experiment in Turkey," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 76(3), pages 436-460, August.
    4. Selim Gulesci & Marinella Leone & Sameen Zafar, 2024. "Domestic Violence Laws and Social Norms: Evidence from Pakistan," Trinity Economics Papers tep0324, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    5. Mavisakalyan, Astghik & Otrachshenko, Vladimir & Popova, Olga, 2024. "Natural Disasters and Acceptance of Intimate Partner Violence: The Global Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 17172, IZA Network @ LISER.
    6. Abhishek Yadav & Raghunathan Krishankumar & Kattur Soundarapandian Ravichandran & Fatih Ecer, 2026. "Analyzing Barriers to Discrimination Mitigation for Women's Empowerment to Achieve SDG 5–Gender Equality," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(S2), pages 757-777, March.
    7. Ayça Akarçay & Sezgin Polat, 2023. "Reluctance to report criminal incidents: limited access to justice, social exclusion, and gender," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 145-166, February.
    8. Makate, Marshall & Nyamuranga, Chamunorwa, 2024. "Changing the mindsets? Education and the intergenerational spread of tolerance for physical violence against women in Zimbabwe," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    9. Andréa Renk & Clarice Manuel, 2023. "Patriarchy on the map: Women’s empowerment trajectories in Nepal’s changing social context," DeFiPP Working Papers 2304, University of Namur, Development Finance and Public Policies.
    10. Akyol, Pelin & Kirdar, Murat Güray, 2021. "Does Education Really Cause Domestic Violence? Revisiting the Turkish Data," IZA Discussion Papers 14735, IZA Network @ LISER.
    11. Dhamija, Gaurav & Gupta, Sagnik Kumar & Ojha, Manini, 2025. "The Protective Power of Connectivity: Internet Exposure and Intimate Partner Violence," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1690, Global Labor Organization (GLO).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0349515. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.