Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of life of older adults

Abstract

Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted unevenly across nations and population groups. Older adults were considered a high-risk group because of their high susceptibility to infection and potential for clinical complications and death. Long periods of home confinement and social distancing foster changes in daily life that impact the mobility, health and quality of life of older adults. This study aims to assess the quality of life of older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic, adherence to prevention measures, self-perceived impaired mobility, relating to others, daily activities, eating habits and constipation-patterns. Methods A cross-sectional study with a mixed approach was implemented, with 114 participants completing an online survey. Findings The participants with poorer quality of life had older age, had less schooling, were unemployed, had no partner, were ill and experienced chronic functional constipation. The intimacy dimension had the lowest score. Mobility, relating to others and activities of daily living were rated by most participants as strongly affected by the pandemic. Conclusions The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the quality of life of older adults by fostering social isolation and physical inactivity. To ameliorate this, public health interventions are needed.

Motivations, Relationships, Health and Quality of Life of Older Volunteers in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic

“…As for the educational level, the results of the study put in evidence that older volunteers with a high educational level were those more exposed to the risk of worsening their quality of life due to the COVID-19 outbreak. This is in contrast with findings of other studies [78,79]. This insight might be related to the fact that in Italy social and cultural life is a prerogative for highly educated older people [80][81][82], and the disruption of all this due to the containment measures may have dramatically hit their quality of life since expectations and aspirations in this respect were highly disregarded.…”

Avaliação da qualidade de vida de idosos atendidos em um hospital da Amazônia Oriental no contexto da pandemia de COVID-19

“…A variável escolaridade foi a que mais apresentou correlações significativas com os resultados obtidos no estudo, obtendo correlação positiva com o domínio físico e com a faceta atividades passadas, presentes e futuras. Esse resultado é similar ao encontrado em outros estudos semelhantes, em que a escolaridade baixa, comumente associada ao desemprego, está relacionada a níveis diminuídos de qualidade de vida (Carmona-González et al, 2022).…”