Facial trauma as physical violence markers against elderly Brazilians: A comparative analysis between genders Rayanne Izabel Maciel de Sousa a , Ítalo de Macedo Bernardino a , Ricardo Dias Castro b , Alessandro Leite Cavalcanti a , Patricia Meira Bento a , Sérgio d’Ávila a, * a Universidade Estadual da Paraíba (UEPB), Campina Grande, PB, Brazil b Universidade Federal da Paraíba (UFPB), João Pessoa, PB, Brazil A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 24 April 2016 Received in revised form 4 June 2016 Accepted 19 June 2016 Available online 29 June 2016 Keywords: Violence Elder abuse Wounds and injuries A B S T R A C T The aim of this study was to characterize the profile of elderly Brazilians with injuries resulting from physical violence and identify victimization differences. A descriptive and exploratory study was conducted involving the analysis of medico-legal and social records of 259 elderly victims of physical violence treated at an Institute of Forensic Medicine and Dentistry over four years (from January 2008 to December 2011). The forensic service database was evaluated by researchers properly trained and calibrated to perform this function between January and March 2013. Socio-demographic variables of victims, aggression characteristics, aggressor’s profile and types of lesions were evaluated. Descriptive and multivariate statistics using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) were performed. The prevalence of facial trauma was 42.9%. Based on the MCA results, two groups with different victimization profiles were identified: married men aged 70–79 years, victims of community violence at night, suffering facial injuries; and single, widowed or separated women aged 60–69 years, victims of domestic violence during the day, suffering trauma in other areas of the body. The results suggest that there is a high prevalence of facial injuries among elderly Brazilians victims of physical violence and there are important differences related to victimization characteristics according to gender. ã 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction 1.1. Background Violence is a social and universal phenomenon that affects people of all classes, religions, and cultures, with differences by gender, age and ethnicity (Businger, Krebs, Schaller, Zimmermann, & Exadaktylos, 2012; Tobiasz-Adamczyk, Brzyski, & Brzyska, 2014; Guedes et al., 2015) and can be divided into two subcategories: (1) family and intimate partner violence – practiced among family members or intimate partners, which usually occurs in homes; (2) violence in the community – occurs among individuals with no personal relationship that may or may not know each other (Dahlberg & Krug 2007; Lee, Reese-Weber, & Kahn, 2014; Ferreira et al., 2015). The proportion of elderly people in the world is undergoing changes and bringing new political, social and economic concerns (Carvalho Filho et al., 2015). It is estimated that between years 2000–2050, the number of people over 60 years will increase from 600 million to two billion worldwide (World Health Organization, 2002). Unlike developed countries, the Brazilian population has aged very fast without comprehensive socio-economic change, chal- lenging the country to face a new population with an epidemio- logical profile characterized by chronic, degenerative and disabling diseases (Carvalho Filho et al., 2015; Lima & Campos, 2011). Among the disabling diseases, trauma has been a growing concern, since they can generate impact on functional capacity and quality of life (ATLS Subcommittee, American College of Surgeons’ Committee on Trauma, & International ATLS working group, 2013). In the context of physical violence, it has been reported that traumas in the face region represent a fairly common event (Mascarenhas et al., 2015). Using this characteristic type of lesion as a marker of physical violence may reveal an insidious form of violence, which usually occurs silently and can be the starting point for a fatal outcome (Silva et al., 2015). Therefore, it is essential * Corresponding author at: Av. das Baraúnas, no 351, Department of Dentistry, State University of Paraíba, Campina Grande, 58429-500, Brazil. E-mail addresses: davila2407@hotmail.com, davila@ccbs.uepb.edu.br (S. d’Ávila). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2016.06.015 0167-4943/ã 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics 67 (2016) 55–60 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics journal home page: www.elsevier.com/locat e/archger