The time has come to eliminate the gaps in the under-recognized burden of elder mistreatment: A community-based, cross-sectional study from rural eastern Nepal

The worldwide demographic transition indicates a higher proportion of elderly people than children, which is projected to increase to approximately 1.5 billion elders by 2050, compared to the 254 million estimated in 2010. The major shift in the population is expected to occur mostly in developing countries [1]. This remarkable change is being attributed to a decrease in fertility rates and a decline in death rates as a result of successful public health interventions all over the world. Rapid gains have been seen in East Asia, where life expectancy at birth has increased to more than 74 years compared to less than 45 years in 1950 [2]. The 2011 census of Nepal showed that 8.1% of the country's total population constitutes elders [3]. Unlike high income countries, a majority of the elder population lives in the rural regions of Nepal.

The 2002 Madrid International Plan of Action on Aging (MIPAA) is the first global agreement recognizing the needs of elderly people and emphasizing that they should be included in policy in all developmental processes, thus advancing their health and well-being [1]. The dignity and fundamental rights of elders must be respected with a great sense of responsibility and without any discrimination by individuals, families, relatives, communities, and the government at all levels of public service delivery. However, it has been recognized that the circumstance is unprecedented in many respects in which inevitable challenges are faced by elders resulting from modernization, comorbidities, poor social and family support, inadequate economic support, and a lack of aging policies and community-based care systems, thereby reducing their quality of life [4]. These disadvantages may contribute to poorer quality of life as well as put elders at risk for various types of mistreatment, including physical, psychological or emotional, sexual, and financial mistreatment [5]. Epidemiological studies have reported global variations in the prevalence of mistreatment, ranging between 2.0% to 79.7% in terms of a pooled estimate from five continents and between 2.2% to 66% in Asia [6,7]. The results of a systematic review conducted by Dong revealed group estimates in Asia ranging from 14% in India to 36.2% in China. European estimates ranged from 2.2% in Ireland to 61.1% in Croatia, while the Americas showed estimates ranging from 10% in the USA to 79.7% in Peru [6]. The review published in Lancet in 2017 showed the pooled prevalence estimates for different subtypes of elder mistreatment: 11·6% (8·1–16·3) for psychological mistreatment, 6·8% (5·0–9·2) for financial mistreatment, 4·2% (2·1–8·1) for neglect, 2·6% (1·6–4·4) for physical mistreatment, and 0·9% (0·6–1·4) for sexual mistreatment [8]. A recently published Malaysian study reported a prevalence of 4.5% in the community setting [9]. A recent scoping review by Pillemer et al. showed that elderly adults’ functional dependence, ethnicity, gender, age, poor physical health, low income, and substance abuse are strongly associated with elder mistreatment; however, the findings mentioned social support and living arrangements as protective factors against elder mistreatment [10].

In the community/society, a large proportion of elder mistreatment is hidden from the law and general public; thus, an analogy to the hidden mass of the "iceberg phenomenon of the disease" can be made. Elder mistreatment “any type of action, series of actions or lack of actions, which produce physical or psychological harm (loneliness, negligence, non-responsiveness, exploitation from family members), and which is set within a relationship of trust or dependence” [11–13].

In this context, elder mistreatment is well documented in the Western world, and there are economic and social policies to address the issue. Nonetheless, in the context of developing countries, including Nepal, with a lack of adequate research in this niche area, documentation is limited. Elder issues are not considered a major issue needing attention, given that the Nepalese cultural milieu is bound by strong family ties. However, there is a growing need to shift thinking towards issues faced by elders due to growing generation gaps, the mobility of economically active people for jobs and better education, adjustment problems, disrespect by the younger generation and abusive behavior from family members and caregivers, all of which have affected the lives of elders [9,10,13]. In a survey of 212 elderly people in urban Nepal, the rate of some form of elder mistreatment was found to be 49.1% [13]. Similarly, a baseline study on reported cases of elder mistreatment in the Nepali press showed the presence of physical mistreatment (43%) and neglect (33.3%), as well as mistreatment leading to the death of elder victims in 49% of cases [5]. Additionally, the same report illustrated that urban areas have more reported cases of mistreatment than other regions, where poverty, family conflict/jealousy/greed, and corrupt attitudes were reflected as prime causes of negligence towards elders [14]

The government of Nepal has formulated a national policy on aging in the form of various acts on property rights distribution, social security and access to health facilities. Nevertheless, defined rules or acts against elder mistreatment is lacking for the burgeoning elder population. Given that elder mistreatment can have a range of negative outcomes, such as psychological disorders and an increased risk for death and suicide [15], understanding associated factors and preventing elder mistreatment should be top research priorities in developing countries, including Nepal. The emphasis on elder mistreatment is appropriate because it is a widespread problem among elderly people that is largely preventable. Therefore, a better understanding of this problem and its risk factors should be a priority in national policies and strategies. There have been very few studies in varied settings of Nepal [5,13]. Building on the existing literature, the present study attempts to bridge a critical knowledge gap in this field by examining the prevalence of elder mistreatment and associated factors among elders in rural communities. In this study, we hypothesized (null hypothesis) that there is no effect of ethnicity, age group, education status, gender, living arrangement, concentration problems, medication for any disease, income level of caregiver, use of alcohol and tobacco products, and dependence on family or caregivers for daily activities on any type of elder mistreatment.

Elder mistreatment is still under recognized by policy makers and implementers and the general public. Elder mistreatment is a violation of basic human rights, and various exceptionally complex underlying factors contribute to its occurrence. Elderly adults are not only vulnerable to mistreatment, but they also often experience mistreatment because of progressive dependence, worsened function and poor health, feelings of helplessness and loneliness, and lack of support from caregivers. There is a scarce amount of information on elder mistreatment in the rural context of Nepal. To our knowledge, this is the first community-based study examining the prevalence of elder mistreatment and its risk factors in a rural setting of Nepal.

Our findings show that elder mistreatment was common, with an estimated prevalence of 61.7% in the last three months; this estimate is the aggregate of caregiver neglect and caregiver-inflicted physical, psychological, financial and other type of mistreatment. The present estimate was found to be higher than that reported in a study conducted by Yadav et al. (49.1%) in an urban setting of Nepal [13]. Similarly, the estimate is higher than that reported in India (50.0%), Europe (20.0%), or the United States of America (10.0%) [17–19]. This difference might have arisen because self-reported mistreatment is largely based on self-perception, and we did not attempt to validate elders’ reports of mistreatment with those of their caretakers because of ethical issues. Elder mistreatment continues to be thought of as taboo, mostly under-reported and ignored across the world. In this study, we tried to explore the mistreatment types by giving various examples related to the local Nepalese context in the absence of family members or caregivers. This approach might have contributed to the high prevalence of mistreatment reported in this study. On the other hand, we have excluded elders with cognitive impairment (CI) and this might have an effect on under-estimation of elder mistreatment because CI itself is a risk factor for mistreatment. Also, it is possible that some caregivers deliberately report CI to avoid interviews/ investigation.

The findings of the current study revealed that family/caregiver neglect and psychological and financial mistreatment were the most common forms of elder mistreatment, consistent with findings from other settings [12, 20–23].

Overall or subtypes of mistreatment were more commonly reported among females compared to males, but the association was not found to be statistically significant. In the present study, we found that being dependent on family/caregivers for daily living activities, being illiterate and having concentration problems alone significantly increased the likelihood of elder mistreatment. Similarly, we found that different risk factors varied by mistreatment subtypes, even after controlling for the confounders.

Elders depending on family members/caregivers for daily living activities experienced more than twice the mistreatment of those who do not depend on family members/caregivers, which may be related to the poor socio-economic or socio-cultural class of the family/caregiver. There is a strong belief in the cohesion between family members/caregivers and elders in Nepal because of socio-cultural aspects, but this cohesion does not always occur because of the major presence of Western culture and a lack of social responsibility among family members/caregivers. Most of the time, families care for elders if they have some belongings in their name or if they opt to stay in the nuclear family. Additionally, in Nepal, family members/caregivers assume the daily activities of elders as an additional job in their personal daily routine, which might lead to increased conflict at the family level, which in turn puts elders at risk of mistreatment. This circumstance also reflects the poor health of the elders, which makes them incapable of performing activities for themselves. Furthermore, the economic dependence of an elderly person on family members/caregivers for accommodation and financial support to access health services could be a source of conflict among family members/caregivers. This dependence may also increase the risk of mistreatment. These findings are consistent with findings from similar studies [24,25].

Similarly, more than half of the participants who were illiterate experienced a greater risk of mistreatment. This finding likely reflects the fact that family members/caregivers might not be aware of the impact of negligence on the health of elders or might have the perception that illiterate people cannot access legal services easily. However, there are no strong rules and regulations for elder mistreatment at any setting in Nepal, and even if such mistreatment is reported to the police, they ask the family to solve the dispute at a personal level, as this is easily considered a family matter. The evidence suggests that education can improve individuals’ economic status and increase one’s likelihood of being respected [26–29]. This is an interesting finding, given that there is a link between education status and the experience of mistreatment in the last three months. Therefore, the results show indications of a high prevalence of mistreatment among illiterate individuals in rural Nepal.

Experiencing concentration problems with the resultant inability to complete activities of daily living increase the risk of mistreatment, which is consistent with evidence from low- and middle-income countries, including Nepal [13,29,30]. Elders who were on medication for any morbidity experience psychological mistreatment more often than their counterparts, which may also be partly due to high social and economic dependence on the caregiver. In the Nepalese context, health insurance is not used, and if elders develop morbidities, caregivers/family members often manage the expenses from their own pocket or by selling the elders’ or their own belongings, which in turns puts elders at risk of verbal mistreatment directly or indirectly (e.g., using slur words, not purchasing their medicine on time). Furthermore, we found that two demographic variables, namely, monthly income level of the family members/caregivers < NRs. 20,000 (193 USD) and elders being part of the Dalit community, presented an increased risk of psychological mistreatment to elders compared to the reference group. The one potential explanation could be poor socio-economic and socio-cultural status of the family/caregiver. For instance, a caregiver with low socio-economic status might not be able to fulfill the demanding needs of elders. Furthermore, the poor socio-cultural environment of disadvantaged ethnic groups may result in caregivers’ unwillingness to listen to the needs of the elders, which may be related to elders’ increased perceived psychological mistreatment [13,19,28–33]. However, several aspects of ongoing societal change are associated with increased elder mistreatment. Nepal, while culturally and socially diverse, is one of the poorest countries in South Asia, where two out of three Nepalese individuals live in poverty. These circumstances result in societal changes, such as changes in lifestyle-related behaviors, personal characteristics, the perception of both male and female elders as burdens, the erosion of social values in the name of modernization, and a lack of trust and understanding among family members. Lifestyle behaviors, including alcohol use disorder, drug use, and personal challenges such as aggression and stress, within the caregiver/family environment might increase the risk of elder mistreatment in Nepal.

In addition, more than half of the participants being accommodated by their son(s)- or daughter(s)-in-law reported significant financial mistreatment. In Nepal, caregiving responsibilities are traditionally borne by immediately family members and most often by son(s)- or daughter(s)-in-law. In the Nepalese context, elders are either completely or to a large extent dependent on family members, particularly on son(s)- or daughter(s)-in-law, for their daily living activities. In return, they expect to receive the belongings of elders, such as cash, jewelry, and land. However, if elders refuse to promise or transfer these belongings, it could subsequently lead to greater financial mistreatment against them. This situation could explain why son(s)- or daughter(s)-in-law are often reported as the perpetrators of mistreatment in Nepal. It is well documented in the literature that the daughter-in-law is the main perpetrator of mistreatment, very closely followed by the son [17, 19, 31, 34]. Similarly, the study by Yadav et.al (13) from urban Nepal reported that staying with son(s)- or daughter(s)-in-law increases the risk of psychological mistreatment. In contrast, studies suggest that living with immediate or supportive family members is protective against elder mistreatment [35, 36]. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that living arrangements differ across countries and socio-cultural settings, and perpetrators vary according to the local context. A detailed examination of the differential role of living arrangements with regard to elder mistreatment needs to be further explored in the Nepalese setting. Based on our findings, there are few plans of action and little awareness of aging issues, and there is a major difference in this regard between the high income and low-income countries like Nepal.

Despite the strengths of this study, it also has some limitations. The study enrolled participants from only 3 VDCs of a one rural district in Nepal; thus, the results cannot be generalized to a wider population. Our study solely reflects mistreatment cases self-reported by the elderly population using interviewer-administered semi-structured tools, for which the perspective of the caregivers might differ, which was not considered in this study. Moreover, response bias may have been present in the data. For example, on a yes/no response, some participants might have been biased towards responding yes (i.e., even if they had undergone a given experience long ago, they may have responded yes to indicate that they have indeed had that experience), and alternatively, others might have had a conservative response bias, i.e., responding positively only to the scenarios specifically mentioned in the questions. Further, with regard to sexual mistreatment, it was delved in the context of stranger mistreatment. Cultural taboos in the Nepalese context precluded us from probing deeper into the issue such as asking them regarding being forced into sexual acts against their will. Additionally, we considered a recall period of 3 months, which could be reconsidered in future studies, e.g., by having a 12-month time frame. Due to our funding constraints, we could not consider a lower margin of error, and the authors decided to designate a 5% margin of error out of convenience. Further, since this study was cross-sectional, the causal relationship between the dependent variables and covariates cannot be established. Our study emphasizes the need for longitudinal national-level studies on elder mistreatment in Nepal that include the perspectives of both elders and caregivers. Such studies would allow for the wider generalizability of conclusions through the adoption of both qualitative and quantitative methods. Longitudinal studies can capture both the incidence and prevalence at any point in time and can further provide strategic direction for policy makers to combat this public health issue. In addition, the data generated from longitudinal studies might help to advocate for the establishment of a referral system for cases of mistreatment at the primary level of care. Furthermore, this study provides data on elder mistreatment and associated factors from a rural setting, which could be useful in the design of implementation research with clear prevention strategies for the benefit of elder well-being.