Factors associated with health care providers speaking with older patients about being subjected to abuse

Health care providers have difficulties responding to elder abuse. This study aimed to investigate factors associated with health care providers speaking with older patients about being subjected to abuse, and what facilitating measures staff preferred to help them achieve this. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among hospital health care providers (n = 154) in Sweden. Half of the respondents had experience of speaking about elder abuse. A high sense of professional responsibility (OR 3.23) and being less concerned about inflicting damage to the therapeutic relationship (OR 3.97) were associated with having spoken with older patients about being subjected to abuse. Written guidelines about elder abuse and a patient information sheet were the most preferred facilitating measures. Our findings indicate that increasing care providers’ sense of responsibility and addressing concerns about damaging the therapeutic relationship might be important factors to target in future interventions to improve health care response to elder abuse.