In a seminal study in New Haven, CT, United States, data from a comprehensive annual health and welfare study of a representative sample of 2812 older people were merged with the database of the local agency concerned with adult abuse for each year over a 9-year period (50). Information for the health survey was recorded by nurses, who saw the older people at a hospital for the first year’s data collection and every third year after that. In the intervening years, data were updated by telephone. Information about abuse and neglect was obtained by case workers using existing protocols after investigating claims of mistreatment, usually by a home visit
