Screening for Elder Abuse among Turkish Older People: Validity of the Hwalek-Sengstock Elder Abuse Screening Test (H-S 'East')

Objective: This study aims to adapt "The Hwalek-Sengstock Elder Abuse Screening Test (H-S "East")" (Neale, Hwalek, Scott, Sengstock, & Stahl, 1991) to Turkish and to assess its validity and reliability while determining the factors that affect elder abuse. Method: The sample of the study is composed of 465 elderly women and men (60+ years of age) who live in different cities in Turkey. First, validity and reliability analyses of the H-S "East" are carried out. Subsequently, binary logistic regression analysis is performed to determine the factors that affect elder abuse. Results: In this study, the H-S "East" has a three-factor construction as found in the original scale. Inner consistency coefficient is found as 0.814. Elder abuse is mostly affected by "life satisfaction," "use of social benefits," "satisfaction with income," and "age." Conclusion: The results show that the Turkish version may be used as a valid and reliable tool in determining elderly abuse in social work practice and also for the purpose of early diagnosis and in other relevant research. Moreover, when the factors that affect elder abuse are taken into account, care and support facilities for the social inclusion of elderly should be developed and relevant social policies should be revised.