VIOLENCE AGAINST OLDER WOMEN: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Although elder abuse and neglect are not unfamiliar situations in research and intervention programmes, current perspectives indicate that when highlighting age as a factor for this kind of violence, the gender perspective in the understanding of violence towards the elderly has been overlooked. This review attempts to shed light on this gender perspective when we look at what kind of abuse older people, and especially older women, are suffering. Three issues concerning the mistreatment of older women will be reviewed: the characteristics of intimate partner violence against older women, the health and quality of life consequences of this kind of abuse, and intervention programmes that can be implemented for this group. The aim of this paper is to provide a framework for starting up national studies and interventions regarding intimate partner violence against older women, an issue barely studied in our country so far