Nursing and Dentistry Researchers Receive Grants to Study Elder Mistreatment

NYU College of Nursing’s Dean Terry Fulmer and co-investigator Sheryl Strasser, and co-investigator Stefanie Russell of the NYU College of Dentistry, have received a two-year $346,569 grant from the National Institute on Aging to study elder mistreatment (EM).

In the study, “Primary Care Clinics for Estimating the Prevalence and Incidence of Elder Mistreatment,” researchers will conduct screenings for elder mistreatment among 982 older adults who visit their doctors at five primary care clinics. The aim is to estimate the prevalence of elder mistreatment in a large urban sample of community-dwelling elderly persons, estimate the six-month incidence of elder mistreatment among these patients, and compare a standardized, valid, reliable instrument used for screening for elder abuse with a newly developed instrument.

EM is a potentially fatal public health problem that causes human suffering and preventable morbidity and mortality. Infected pressure ulcers, urine burns, fractures, depression, and death are examples of EM.