A Path to Prevention of Elder Abuse in Long-term Care. Prevalence Study Among Staff in Long-term Care.

NCT07494422 | Not Yet Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: 2026-01231-02
• Study Type: observational
• Target: 6,000
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Globally, studies indicated that 16% of community dwelling older adults have been exposed to some form of abuse in the past 12 months. Furthermore, a global meta-analysis about AOP in long-term care facilities used staff as respondents and found that the pooled estimate of overall self-reported perpetration of staff to resident abuse during the past 12 months was 64.2% (95% CI 53.3-73.9%). Similar findings was also reported in a study from Norway in which the overall prevalence of observed staff-to-resident abuse was 76% and 60% of respondents report self-perpetration of abusive acts during the past 12 months. Resident-to-resident aggression was even more common, observed by 88% of respondents. This study is part of the Swedish national research program APPEAL (A Path to Prevention of Elder Abuse in Long-term care) with the long-term goal to co-create an intervention for abuse of older people (AOP) in nursing homes together with stakeholders, i.e., staff, managers, care recipients and relatives. Study design and data collection: A cross-sectional study design will be used with slightly different data collection modes.

1. 1.Population sample. Statistics Sweden combine data from the Swedish Occupational Register with data about industry codes (SNI-codes) to make a national randomized sample of staff working in home care services (n=12000) and nursing homes (n=11000) in Sweden. Data will be collected through a digital survey. Data will be combined with available register data from Statistics Sweden, including for example sex, age, civil state and occupational related data.
2. 2.Workplace sample. Sweden has 290 Municipalities. The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) have an official categorization of the municipalities based on e.g., urban area size, proximity to a larger urban area, and commuting patterns. One municipality in each of the nine categories has been randomly selected for participation. In the randomization process, geographical location of the municipalities has been considered to assure national representativeness, meaning that in case several municipalities in the same geographical region were selected a new randomization was conducted. Staff in each selected municipalities will be invited to participate through managers in each organization. Data will be collected through a digital questionnaire. Organizations will be encouraged to set a side time at a staff meeting for completing the questionnaire. If this is not possible, a link to the questionnaire will be sent out by e-mail. Data will be collected anonymously.

Conditions

Abuse Domestic; Elder Abuse; Abuse Neglect; Abuse Physical; Abuse Verbal; Abuse, Sexual; Violence and Victimization; Elder Mistreatment; Long Term Care

Keywords

Abuse of older people; Long-term care facilities; Home care; Home health care

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

• Self-reported perpetration of abuse

  Proportion of staff reporting perpetration of abuse of older people during the past 12 monts

  Day1. Cross sectional study using only one point of data collection. Participants are enrolled by returing a questionnaire including items about abuse. The timeframe used in the questionnaire is experiences of abuse during the past 12 months.

• Staff-to-resident abuse

  Proportion of staff reporting witnessing abuse of older people by another staff member during the past 12 monts

  Day1. Cross sectional study using only one point of data collection. Participants are enrolled by returing a questionnaire including items about witnessing acts of abuse during the past 12 months.

• Relative-to-resident abuse

  Proportion of staff reporting witnessing abuse by a relative during the past 12 months

  Day1. Cross sectional study using only one point of data collection. Participants are enrolled by returing a questionnaire including items about witnessing acts of abuse during the past 12 months.

• Resident-to-resident aggression

  Proportion of staff reporting witnessing resident-to-resident abusive behaviours in the past 12 months

  Day1. Cross sectional study using only one point of data collection. Participants are enrolled by returing a questionnaire including items about witnessing acts of abuse during the past 12 months.

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Staff exposure to abuse

  Day1. Cross sectional study using only one point of data collection. Participants are enrolled by returing a questionnaire including items about expsoure to abuse at the workplace during the past 12 months

Study Arms (2)

Random sample

Random sample of staff working in home care services or long-term care facilities according to national registers

Workplace sample

Staff working in home care services and long-term care facilities in a selected number of municiaplities who accepted participation in the study

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 69 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)
• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

Two samples are used. 1. Population sample. Statistics Sweden combine data from the Swedish Occupational Register with data about industry codes (SNI-codes) to make a national randomized sample of staff working in home care services (n=12000) and nursing homes (n=11000) in Sweden. 2. Workplace sample. The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) have an official categorization of the 290 municipalities in Sweden based on e.g., urban area size, proximity to a larger urban area, and commuting patterns. One municipality in each of the nine categories has been randomly selected for participation. Staff in each selected municipalities will be invited to participate through managers in each organization.

You may qualify if:

• Working in home care services or a long-term care facility in Sweden
• Working in direct contact with older adults (e.g., providing care, nursing, rehabilitation to older adults)

You may not qualify if:

• None

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Karolinska Institutet: collaborator
• City of Gothenburg: collaborator
• Norwegian University of Science and Technology: collaborator
• Linkoeping University: lead

Study Sites (1)

Linköping University

Linköping, Sweden

Location

Related Links

• Project website

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Coitus

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Sexual Behavior; Behavior

Central Study Contacts

Johanna Simmons

CONTACT

+46 (0) 13 281000; Johanna.simmons@liu.se

Study Design

• Study Type: observational
• Observational Model: OTHER
• Time Perspective: CROSS SECTIONAL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER GOV
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: March 20, 2026
• First Posted: March 27, 2026
• Study Start: March 24, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): October 31, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): April 30, 2027
• Last Updated: March 27, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-03

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Access Criteria: Data will be shared upon reasonable request by contacting the principal investigator.

Locations

SE (1)