National Elder Mistreatment Study: 8-Year Follow-up of Victims and Matched Non-Victims, United States, 2015-2018 (ICPSR 37275)
Version Date: Dec 2, 2025 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Ronald Acierno, Medical University of South Carolina
Series:
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37275.v2
Version V2 (see more versions)
Alternate Title View help for Alternate Title
Summary View help for Summary
The purpose of the completed project was to follow the first National Elder Mistreatment Study (NEMS), which provided prevalence estimates, with a second study of a subset of the same participants to measure the effects of elder abuse in terms of (1) health and mental health outcomes and (2) criminal justice system participation and satisfaction, as well as to specify additional predictors of these effects. Data were collected from 774 older adults 8 years following their participation in Wave I of the NEMS. This represented the results of contacting every locatable participant who reported psychological, physical, or sexual (but not financial) abuse at Wave I (achieved subsample n = 183 of the original 753 Wave I victims) and a comparison sample of 591 randomly selected Wave I non-victims from the remaining 2,149 working phone numbers of the original 5,024 non-victims (at Wave I). As mentioned, financial abuse classification at Wave I was not used to identify the victim subgroup prior to sampling, however retrospective analysis indicated that the two aforementioned sampling groups (every working phone number of Wave I victims of psychological, physical, and sexual abuse AND every working phone number of the 2,149 comparison Wave I participants) accounted for all but 7 financial abuse victims identified as such at Wave I (i.e., no other financial abuse victims at Wave I could have possibly been re-contacted). The cooperation rate (upon contact), for Wave I victims of psychological, physical, or sexual abuse was 66 percent; the cooperation rate of comparison Wave I participants was 57 percent. (Note: it had originally been proposed to conduct propensity matching once the sample of Wave I victims was re-contacted, however by conserving funds during this first phase, the study was able to expand from propensity matching to random selection of a much larger group of over 2,149, for a final derived sample of 774.)
Citation View help for Citation
Export Citation:
Funding View help for Funding
Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Restrictions View help for Restrictions
Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reasons for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
-
For additional information on the National Elder Mistreatment Study (NEMS), please visit the NEMS series page.
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
The purpose of the completed project was to follow the first National Elder Mistreatment Study, which provided prevalence estimates, with a second study of a subset of the same participants to measure the effects of elder abuse in terms of (1) health and mental health outcomes and (2) criminal justice system participation and satisfaction, as well as to specify additional predictors of these effects.
Sample View help for Sample
The original sample of 5,777 adults age 60 and above was collected during 2008 by the AbtSRBI survey research firm and derived using stratified random digit dialing with an area probability sample based on Census-defined 'size of place' parameters with the continental United States serving as the sampling location. Interviews were conducted in either English or Spanish. Standardized computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) procedures were used to query participants about a variety of mistreatment experiences, potential correlates, and demographics. The National Elder Mistreatment Study (NEMS) Wave I cooperation rate was 69 percent, and was calculated according to the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) Rate 2 as the number of completed interviews, including those that screen out as ineligible, divided by the total number of completed interviews, terminated interviews, and refusals to interview.
The follow-up NEMS Wave II was also collected by CATI in 2015 and 2016 under the direction of AbtSRBI. An auto-dialing program tested each phone number used in NEMS Wave I to test whether it was still in operation. This yielded 3,973 operative phone numbers of the original 5,777, including 752 participant numbers who reported being the victim of psychological, physical, or sexual mistreatment since age 60 at Wave I. Note that because these were land lines, an operative number may have been assigned to another household in the intervening 8 years, or respondents may no longer live in the household. Thus, reaching an 'operative number' is not necessarily the same as reaching a 'participant', a relevant factor when calculating cooperation rates. Because the mistreated group was more limited in size, contact attempts were made for all working phone numbers of participants reporting mistreatment at NEMS Wave I. In addition, a randomly selected subsample of operative phone numbers from Wave I comparison participants who did not report Wave I mistreatment were also called (N = 2,149). As with the NEMS Wave I, the cooperation rate was calculated using the AAPOR Rate 2. Note, screen-outs occurred when individuals answered an operative number but disclosed that the original participant was no longer available for participation due to unknown relocation or death; thus, screen-outs are not refusals. Among those operative numbers dialed where participants were available, cooperation rates were 66 percent for the NEMS Wave I since age 60 mistreated group (N = 183) and 57 percent for the comparison group (N = 591), for a total follow-up NEMS Wave II sample of 774.
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for Universe
Adults who participated in Wave I of the National Elder Mistreatment Study.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2019-11-26
Version History View help for Version History
2025-12-02 The data have been updated to reflect changes made by the PI, such as recoding user-defined missing to system missing and adding computed analysis variables. Previously available string variables are no longer included in the updated data. System missing recodes and computations for analysis variables are documented in PI-provided syntax, which ICPSR has made available in a restricted use zipped package. The study title was also updated in all data and documentation files.
2019-11-26 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.
ICPSR usually offers files in multiple formats for researchers to be able to access data and documentation in formats that work well within their needs. If you have questions about the accessibility of materials distributed by ICPSR or require further assistance, please visit ICPSR’s Accessibility Center.
One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.
This dataset is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), the criminal justice archive within ICPSR. NACJD is primarily sponsored by three agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice: the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.