Violence against the elderly population during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Objective: The study aims to understand and address the phenomenon of violence against elderly people during the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting the new ways of confronting this problem. Method: To this end, an Integrative Literature Review was conducted using the PubMed, Medline and Europe PubMed Central databases, with the following descriptors: Coronavirus Infections, violence and aged, accompanied by Boolean keywords "AND" and "OR". The combination of descriptors and keywords revealed 379 studies, of which only 5 met the inclusion criteria for analysis. Results: It was observed that isolation and social distancing are risk factors for violence against the elderly population, which had a significant growth during the Covid-19 pandemic. As one of the coping strategies, it is understood that social protection services can perform actions actions through remote contact, especially with elderly people who were already vulnerable and at risk, in order to monitor them and avoid the occurrence or aggravation of cases. Conclusion: This study allows to reflect on possible strategies to combat violence against the elderly in the period of the Covid-19 pandemic.