Abstract
Objective: To identify risk factors related to violence against the elderly in order to guide strategies to provide comprehensive care for the elderly and preventing abuse. Methods: A systematic review, searching for studies in the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) and CAPES Journal Portal databases was conducted. For the research step, the following descriptors were used: “elderly” and “violence”. Publications of the last 5 years in English, Portuguese and Spanish were included, as well as quantitative and qualitative studies. Results: A total of 295 articles were identified, including 19 selected for this review. All of them consisted of national publications, 17 of which were in Portuguese, with its higher prevalence published on Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem and Revista Brasileira de Geriatria e Gerontologia journals, and, as a study design, semi-structured interviews had a higher number of publications. Final considerations: Female gender, functional dependence degree and close relationship with the aggressor represent important attributes associated with victims of abuse. Male gender, single and family member characterize the aggressor profile. Providing information on risk factors related to violence against the elderly helps to define the problem and to deal with it.