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When It Is No Longer Safe to Live Alone

Carmel Bitondo Dyer, MD; Sabrina Pickens, MSN, APRN-BC; Jason Burnett, MS

JAMA. 2007;298:1448-1450.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

In 2004, state-level adult protective service agencies across the United States received more than 600 000 reports of elders who were in need of protection.¹ The New York City Department of Aging estimates 50 000 cases of elder mistreatment in the boroughs, even though only 1600 instances are reported.² Some elders experience physical abuse, caregiver neglect, and financial exploitation, but the most common report to adult protective service agencies in the United States is self-neglect, a syndrome that afflicts vulnerable older adults who are not able to meet basic needs.^2-3 Self-neglect, often discounted as a harmless peculiarity of old age, is actually an independent risk factor for early death.³ Elders neglecting themselves usually live alone. They display behaviors such as piling garbage inside the home, allowing food to spoil, failing to maintain utilities in the home, ignoring serious medical issues, and . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Unsafe Environments

Author Affiliations: Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine, University of Texas Houston Science Center, Houston.