The gender gap in domestic violence in older adults in Latin America: the IMIAS Study

OBJECTIVE: Describe the prevalence of domestic violence in older men and women in Natal, Brazil, and Manizales, Colombia and explore whether the differences by gender are due to lifetime differences in social and financial status. METHODS: Cross-sectional study with a random sampling of 802 men and women in the IMIAS Study (International Mobility in Aging Study) (65-74 years old) conducted in Natal (Brazil) and Manizales (Colombia). Incidents that occurred in the last six months and any time during their lives were evaluated using the HITS scale. Poisson regression was used to estimate the reasons for the prevalence of violence against women by men. RESULTS: Experience of physical violence occurring any time in life ranged from 2.2% to 18.3%, depending on the city and the sex. Psychological violence was higher in women: violence perpetrated by partners affected 25.7% of women in Natal and 19.4% in Manizales; and by the family, 18.3% in Manizales and 10% in Natal. Almost half of the participants reported suffering psychological violence at some time during their life. Experience of current violence or at some time during life was most frequent in women, even after adjustment for co-variables, with prevalence ratios of 1.60 to 2.14. CONCLUSIONS: The rates of prevalence of domestic violence in older adults show that women are more affected, which means that they should be considered a priority in the prevention policies on Latin America's health agenda