Introduction:

Elder abuse is increasing and it is identified in different ways.

Objective:

To learn about the panorama of institutionalized elder mistreatment from a systematic literature review, identify causes, types, main characteristics, and diagnostic signs of violence in this population, in institutions which provides health services or housing for them.

Methodology:

Review of international literature in English and Spanish on elder abuse in different institutions in the following data bases: Scielo, Medgraphic biomedical literature, Redalyc, Science direct, Pubmed, Scopus, Dialnet, Base and Redib, under the PRISMA methodology.

Results:

A review of 301 references show the incidence of institutionalized elder abuse, characteristics, and consequences. This permitted a balance of the causes, types, signs, and symptoms of mistreatment that frequently occur.

Conclusion:

Elder abuse is a public and social health problem that has serious consequences on the quality of life of the elderly and represents a challenge for health care.