Emotional perspectives and vulnerabilities of older people in times of pandemic

Abstract

The pandemic of the new coronavirus in 2020 caused a serious global health and humanitarian crisis. In the case of the older people, the vulnerabilities were extremely deepened due to the expressive number of infected and dead people worldwide. The objective of this work was to evaluate older people aged 60 years or more in the pandemic of COVID-19, regarding issues of social withdrawal and isolation, fear, frailty, abandonment, and other feelings. The methodology used a broad bibliographic survey, an online questionnaire, with specific questions for locations in the Brazilian federation, in the period from July 06 to 25, 2021, with a quantitative and qualitative approach. A total of 108 people aged 60 to 97 years were interviewed. Through the answers obtained, some impacts on the mental and emotional health of the elderly were observed. The main feelings reported were: (38%) anxiety, (31%) helplessness (27%), fear (26%), and sadness (26%). The highest percentages observed were for the feelings of sadness (60%), anguish (56%), stress (52%) and anxiety (52%) respectively. Therefore, specific public policies for this segment of the population are essential for quality of life and physical and emotional well-being.