**3. Results**

The overall data of the included patients are shown in Table 1.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 45% of the elderly in the study population were victims of EA (*n* = 155). The most common type of abuse was psychological (72.3%), followed by neglect (61.9%), physical (39.4%) and economic (36.8%) (Figure 1).

The logistic regression model (Table 2) showed many variables that were important risk factors for EA. For example, women were 1.90 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.23–2.93) times more likely to experience acts of abuse than men. Compared to people > 70 years of age, people aged 60–65 and 66–70 were statistically more likely to be victims of EA (odds ratio (OR) = 2.35, 95% CI = 1.28–4.31; OR = 1.98, 95% CI = 1.05–3.75, respectively). It was also shown that people with higher education statistically less frequently experienced EA than people with primary education (OR = 0.32, 95% CI = 0.16–0.64). When it comes to marital status, the acts of EA were more frequent in divorced persons and widows/widowers compared to singles (OR = 4.15, 95% CI = 1.70–10.15; OR = 2.50, 95% CI = 1.20–5.25, respectively). Low income was significantly associated with an increased risk of older adult abuse (OR = 3.60, 95% CI = 1.93–6.72). Moreover, people with chronic diseases were 2.06 times more likely to experience abuse (95% CI = 1.28–3.31). Poor relationship with the family and lack of family was also significantly related to EA (OR = 3.26, 95% CI = 1.96–5.43; OR= 3.32, 95% CI = 1.68–6.56, respectively). One of the leading risk factors also turned out to be moderate and severe depression (OR = 18.29, 95% CI = 10.24–32.69; OR = 18.49, 95% CI = 3.91–87.30, respectively). The study also showed that moderate impairment (3–4 points in ADL scale) was 5.52 times more often and severe functional impairment (≤2 points in ADL scale) was 21.07 times more likely to predispose patients to EA. People who suffered from COVID-19 in the past were 1.59 times more likely to be victims of older adult abuse (95% CI = 1.03–2.46).

The project also assessed the risk of EA using the VASS scale. It has been shown that in the study population nearly 46% of the elderly were at risk of abuse (VASS ≥ 3 points). Most of the factors predisposing to increased susceptibility to abuse were similar to those obtained in the assessment of the presence of EA. The exception was age and place of residence, which according to the logistic regression model were not significant risk factors for abuse. Interestingly, who the respondent lives with affects the very risk of EA For example, older people living with a son/daughter or cohabitating partner were more likely to be abused than those living with their spouse (OR = 4.41, 95% CI = 2.43–8.02; OR = 3.75, 95% CI = 1.80–7.81, respectively) (Table 2).

We found moderate, positive and significant correlation between EA and the VASS scale (*R* = 0.54; *p* < 0.05). In addition, the GDS scale showed a statistically significant correlation with the VASS scale and with the occurrence of older adult abuse (*R* = 0.68 and *R* = 0.54, respectively). Subsequently, it was observed that the ADL scale correlated

significantly with both EA and VASS (*R* = −0.46 and *R* = −0.58, respectively). Moreover, the self-assessment of the health condition correlates in a statistically significant negative way only with the VASS assessment (*R* = −0.19) (Table 3).



**Figure 1.** Type of elder abuse.




**Table 3.** Spearman's rank correlation test.

