Abstract
Previous surveys have asked local and regional samples of physicians about their demand for further education about elder abuse, and found majorities of respondents indicating such demand. We present results from the first nationally representative study of this topic. We focus on education about physical restraint and neglect of patients in need of long-term care. A postal survey of a probability sample of German family physicians was conducted. Respondents were randomly assigned to receive a questionnaire on either restraint or neglect, with analogous content in both questionnaires. Questionnaires had been pretested and their psychometric properties optimized. Response rates are 17% (n = 253) for restraint and 19% (n = 284) for neglect. About half of the respondents express an interest in education, with the share significantly higher for neglect than for restraint. Relative interest in specific topics is similar across conditions, with the topic “distinguishing signs of abuse from symptoms due to other causes” the most popular. In logistic regressions, significant predictors of interest are attitudes towards preventing abuse of patients in need of long-term care as the family physician’s responsibility, lack of confidence in one’s abilities to tackle such abuse (both conditions), the proportion of the respondent’s patients who are in need of long-term care, and the respondent’s knowledge about patients’ previous victimization (neglect condition only). We conclude that there is high interest in education about these topics and call for research that examines whether relatively positive attitudes towards restraint are due to a lack of knowledge about alternatives.