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Prevalence of Elder Abuse and Neglect in Iran: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Context: Elder abuse remains one of the most hidden forms of intra-family conflict within many societies. The purpose of the present systematic review and meta-analysis was to assess the prevalence of elder abuse in Iran. Methods: International and national electronic databases including Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, SID, Magiran, Irandoc and Google Scholar were searched from inception to April 22, 2018. The quality of studies was assessed using the “STROBE” checklist. Meta-analysis was performed on studies that used the same questionnaire and reported estimates of annual prevalence of elder abuse. Results: Of 1386 articles retrieved in the initial search, 13 studies were selected for systematic review, of which eight studies were eligible to be included in the meta-analysis. The overall rates across all forms of abuse ranged widely from 14.7% to 87.8%. The pooled prevalence rate for overall elder abuse was 60% (95% CI: 42% - 78%). The pooled prevalence estimate in the domains of elder abuse was 13% (95% CI: 7% - 18%) for physical abuse, 36% (95% CI: 24% - 47%) for psychological abuse, 31% (95% CI: 18% - 43%) for financial abuse, 28% (95% CI: 19% - 37%) for financial neglect, 36% (95% CI: 22% - 50%) for care neglect, 43% (95% CI: 31% - 55%) for emotional neglect, 25% (95% CI: 16% - 35%) for authority deprivation, and 13% (95% CI: 8% - 18%) for abandonment. Conclusions: The results of the study showed the high prevalence of elder abuse in Iran, which requires the initiation of effective interventions by the legal authorities.