Risk factors of elder abuse in a community dwelling Spanish sample

We analyzed the discriminative capacity of several risk factors for elder abuse and neglect, in order to identify what characteristics distinguish between caregivers with a high or low risk of abuse and neglect. Forty-five caregivers of relatives with dementia participated. The combination of caregiving impact, frequency of aggressive behaviors by care-recipients, stress related to provocative and aggressive behaviors, the frequency of provocative behaviors, interpersonal burden, autoefficiency expectations, quantity of help received and depression classify correctly as risk factors in 90.9% of the cases. This study permits us to identify what characteristics distinguish between caregivers with a high or low risk of abuse and neglect and caregivers. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.