A comparative study on mental health and adaptability between older and younger adults during the COVID-19 circuit breaker in Singapore

Abstract

Background While older age is associated with better emotional well-being, it is unclear whether such age advantages remain during a pandemic. This study examined differences in mental health, adaptive behaviours, social support, perceived stress, digital media usage, and perceived change in circumstances between younger and older adults during the circuit breaker period (partial lockdown) in Singapore. Methods A door-to-door survey was administered to a nationally representative sample of 602 younger (n = 302) and older (n = 300) adults aged 21–89 years from Singapore from 17 October to 27 November 2020. All participants self-reported their depression, anxiety, stress, adaptive behaviours, social support, perceived stress, change in circumstances, and digital media usage during the partial lockdown period. Results Older adults were found to report significantly lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress as compared to younger adults. Although older adults were less able to perform essential activities during the lockdown, they were more adaptable psycho-socially. Logistic regression analyses revealed that for older age group, adaptability and health status significantly predicted better mental health. Older adults had higher odds of low depression scores [odds ratio (OR) 1.81, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.07–3.08], anxiety scores (OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.05–3.08), and stress scores (OR 3.05, 95% CI 1.72–5.41). In addition, adaptability was found to moderate the relationship between age and mental health with detrimental effects of low adaptability stronger for younger adults than older adults. Conclusions During the lockdown period, older adults in Singapore had better mental health, perceived less stress-related concerns and were more adaptable psycho-socially as compared to younger adults. This study’s findings extend current evidence that age-related advantages in emotional well-being persisted in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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“…In addition, older people may have a context of resilience and adaptive mental health, with previous evidence suggesting that emotional well-being improves with age. 30 , 31 Nevertheless, the association between age and mental health persisted during the acute full lockdown phase of the pandemic, 17 , 32 , 33 and during the easing of strict governmental restrictions as demonstrated by our findings.…”

A qualitative study on health stigma and discrimination in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons learnt from a public health perspective

“…Interviews were also all conducted in English via Zoom, which meant that participants in our sample also possessed a certain level of digital literacy. This was also the case for the older adults in our sample where digital literacy is typically instead much lower as shown in a recent local study (58). Many of the older adults in our sample were familiar with social media and actively subscribed to various official news platforms in the digital sphere such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram.…”

Internet Use and Effects on Mental Well-being During the Lockdown Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Younger Versus Older Adults: Observational Cross-Sectional Study

“…While age has been known to be a predictor of internet use [47,48], the large effect size (d=1. 38) found in this study suggests that the magnitude of such a grey digital divide is substantial and warrants more attention. Given that higher education is also associated with greater internet use [47], our results may be confounded by lower education levels among older adults in the study sample.…”

“…Items were rated on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (did not apply to me at all) to 4 (applied to me very much or most of the time). Details of interpreting the scores and the use in this study have been described previously [38].…”

“…Studies have reported that pandemic-related stress is associated with tendencies toward problematic digital use [59][60][61]. Given that younger adults were found to have greater stress concerns during the pandemic [38], it may be the case that younger adults experienced greater stress and thus engaged in greater problematic internet use, which resulted in poorer mental health. More research is recommended to investigate this.…”