Prevalence Estimates Approximately 4.6% of participants in our study reported experiencing some form of emotional mistreatment in the past year. This contrasts with a prevalence of 9% for verbal mistreatment reported by Laumann et al. in
their recent survey of a nationally representa- tive sample of older adults.8 Thismaybeatleast partly explained by differences between our definition of emotional mistreatment and their more liberal definition of verbal mistreatment. Theprevalence ofphysical mistreatment of older adults was1.6% in our data, which is 8 times the prevalence detected by Laumann et al.8 That study askedonly1question, without contextually orienting preface statements. By contrast, our questions were more inclusive. Neglect is somewhat difficult to identify or even define, because the perpetrator is failing to act rather than overtly abusing. We focused on potential neglect, in which a need was identified, but no one was available or willing to meet this need. Perpetrators were individ- uals identified as having some responsibility for helping our respondent to accomplish neces- sary tasks. Potential neglect was relatively prevalent, with more than 5% of participants reporting an unmet need. This was the only mistreatment type for which race was a signif- icant risk factor. However, this finding may be more a function of differential distribution of personal financial resources along racial lines, resulting in greater levels of unmet needs, rather than any propensity for non-Whites to neglect their older family members. The high prevalence of potential neglect in community- residing, cognitively unimpaired older adults is alarming and warrants further study. Many previous investigations of mistreat- ment of older adults have not assessed financial exploitation by family members, but this is the most likely form of victimization. We found that the prevalence of this type of mistreatment in the past year was approximately 5%, which is slightly higher than the 3.5% reported by Laumann et al.8 and indicates that older adults are at high risk for this form of mistreatment. Older adults who needed assistance with activi- ties of daily life or who reported poor health were more likely to be targets, a finding that echoes past research on fraud and financial abuse of impaired older adults.1