• Adem Durmaz and Muammer Yılmaz.
• Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kütahya Health Sciences University, Kütahya, Türkiye.
• Fam Pract. 2024 Jun 12; 41 (3): 255261255-261.

BackgroundThis study aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitudes and reservations of family physicians (FPs) in reporting elderly abuse and neglect (EAN).MethodsOur cross-sectional study was conducted with 161 FPs in Kütahya, a city in Türkiye. A questionnaire including demographic characteristics, the frequency with which Elder Abuse Suspicion Index (EASI) questions were asked and knowledge level of EAN was applied to the FPs.ResultsOnly about a quarter (24.2%) of the FPs felt competent regarding EAN. The rate of participants who had encountered EAN victims before was 46%. Of these, 40% reported psychological violence, 24.3% reported physical and psychological violence and 21.6% reported only physical violence. FPs also reported that inconsistency in anamnesis (87.0%), inconsistency between anamnesis and physical examination findings (85.1%) and frequent visits to the emergency department (59.6%) raised suspicion about EAN. It was also observed that 68.9% of the FPs knew that healthcare professionals had a legal obligation to report elder abuse. Only 23.0% of the FPs who encountered cases of violence and abuse stated that they had made a legal report. Among the FPs who did not report, 40.4% stated that they did not report because they had some reservations or did not know how to do so (35.1%).ConclusionDue to a lack of knowledge and some concerns, the rate of reporting EAN to judicial authorities was also low. FPs were not aware of the importance of EAN in terms of elderly health.© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.

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