A scoping review of outcomes in elder abuse intervention research: The current landscape and where to go next

• Published in: Aggression and violent behavior 2021-03, Vol.57, p.101476, Article 101476
• Main Authors: Burnes, David, MacNeil, Andie, Nowaczynski, Aliya, Sheppard, Christine, Trevors, Leeann, Lenton, Erica, Lachs, Mark S., Pillemer, Karl
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult abuse & neglect; Elder abuse; Extraction; Health problems; Implementation; Intervention; Measurement; Older people; Operational definitions; Outcomes; Policy making; Qualitative research; Scoping review; Social work; Strength; Systematic review; Tests; Victims; Well being
• ISSN: 1359-1789; 1873-6335
• DOI: 10.1016/j.avb.2020.101476

Researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers worldwide recognize elder abuse (EA) as a major threat to the health and well-being of older adults, but rigorous intervention research has greatly lagged behind this interest. A major weakness is the lack of cohesive understanding of appropriate program outcomes to be measured. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a scoping review of the EA intervention research literature to understand the range of outcomes considered to date and to provide guidance for future research. We searched Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase, Ovid PsycInfo, Ovid Social Work Abstracts, Ebsco AgeLine, Ebsco CINAHL, Wiley Cochrane Central, and Proquest Sociological Abstracts for studies evaluating community-based EA response programs. Two independent reviewers completed record search, screening, and data extraction procedures. We identified 52 eligible studies (1986–2019) that employed a total of 184 outcomes (range: 1–16, mean = 3.5). This study revealed that a large range of outcomes has been employed in EA intervention studies to date, mostly attached to victims or the intervention process itself, with inconsistent operational definitions and measurement procedures. Several key recommendations for future EA intervention research are: 1) implementing intervention outcomes that reflect multiple levels of eco-systemic influence, 2) heightening the analysis of intervention process outcomes beyond description toward modeling them as factors that mediate or moderate successful case outcomes, 3) conducting qualitative research with EA victims and other relevant stakeholders to understand meaningful intervention outcomes from their perspectives, and 4) establishing common EA outcome measures for implementation across studies to facilitate greater data pooling and synthesis. •Elder abuse intervention outcomes vary across studies and are inconsistently operationalized and measured•Majority of elder abuse intervention outcomes are attached to the victim or intervention process itself•Need for further outcomes attached to perpetrator, victim-perpetrator relationship, and family, home, and social systems•Need to examine elder abuse intervention process outcomes as mediators or moderators of successful case outcomes•Need to establish common set of elder abuse intervention outcomes to facilitate data synthesis/comparison in future studies