7 percent, the substantiation rates for different types of maltreatment varied considerably, as follows: physical abuse-61.9 percent; abandonment-56.0 percent; emotional/psychological abuse-54.1 percent; financial/material abuse-44.5 percent; and neglect-41.0 percent. (The substantiation rate for sexual abuse was not statistically significant.) .
A wide variety of reporters of domestic elder abuse were found in the 70,942 substantiated reports of abuse and neglect. The most frequent reporters were family members, who were responsible for 20.0 percent of all reports, followed by hospitals (17.3 percent), and police and sheriffs (11.3 percent). In-home service providers, friends/neighbors, and physician/nurses/clinics each reported between 8 and 10 percent of total reports. The remaining reports were made by out-of-home service providers, banks, public health departments, and other reporters.
Hospitals (19.8 percent) and friends/neighbors (19.1 percent) were the most frequent reporters of substantiated reports of self-neglect in 1996. Police/sheriff, in-home service providers, and physicians/nurses/clinics each reported 12 percent of total reports. Out-of-home providers, family members, banks, the victims themselves, and other reporters made the remaining reports. .
The report examines the age of victims of different types of abuse reported to APS. The oldest elders (those over 80 years of age), who made up about 19 percent of the U.S. elderly population in 1996, were far more likely to be the victims of all categories of abuse, with the exception of abandonment. They accounted for over half the reports of neglect (51.8 percent), and 48.0 percent of financial/material abuse, 43.7 percent of physical abuse, and 41.3 percent of emotional/psychological abuse. In all types of abuse and neglect, elderly victims in the 60-64 and 65-69 age groups accounted for the smallest percentages. .
Female elders were more likely to be the victims of all categories of abuse, except for abandonment.
