Introduction:

Population aging imposes complex challenges to the Cuban family. One of them is financial abuse of the elderly, an issue that has been insufficiently addressed.

Objectives:

To determine the presence of financial abuse of the elderly as well as its characteristics.

Material and Methods:

A cross-sectional descriptive study that included 175 adults older than 60 years attended at "Carlos Manuel Portuondo" polyclinic was carried out between January and December 2018.

Results:

Financial abuse was identified in 53.1% of the elderly. Female sex, ages between 70 and 79 years, having at least one chronic non-communicable disease, widows and retirees predominated among them. The main manifestations of mistreatment reported were loans without refund, unauthorized purchases, denial of access to their own money and pressure to perform legal proceedings.

The progenies were identified as the most frequent abusers. There was a prevalence of the female sex, ages between 40 and 59 years old, secondary level of education, divorced people, and housewives. Most of them had more than one person under their care, received no external financial help and reported a history of mental health care mainly due to depressive/anxious disorders.

Conclusions:

Financial abuse was identified in the elderly studied. This form of violence, despite being one of the least addressed, affects the elderly population and constitutes a health problem.

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