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Impacts of the Covid pandemic on older individuals living alone

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Impacts of the Covid pandemic on older individuals living alone

Older adults, especially those living alone, face difficulties in executing daily activities as

a result of ageing. In the United States, 21% of male and 34% of female older adults live alone.

Following the eruption of the Covid 19 pandemic, various measures were put in place with the

aim to mitigate the pandemic. However, these measures such as lockdown and social isolation

had detrimental impacts on the older adults living alone; their vulnerability increased. This

research seeks to answer the research question; how has the Covid pandemic affected older

individuals living alone? This research will utilize recent studies and peer-reviewed to source

data and provide relevant information.

Social Contact and Emotional Well-being

Due to the mitigation measures established towards the onset of the pandemic, the social

interactions were generally minimized to reduce the spread of the disease. Research by the

Oxford academic established that the pandemic had a great impact on the emotional well-being

of older adults (Fingerman et al., 2021). This is due to the reduced physical contact and

improved phone contact during the pandemic. Physical contact I associated with positive

emotional wellbeing. However, due to the pandemic, the older adults experienced reduced

physical contact.

From the study, one-eighth of the older adult participants were living alone. 83 of them

had to self-isolate due to the pandemic. The study established that the older adults living with

others had the same level of emotional well-being during physical contact and phone contact.

However, the older adults living alone had higher levels of negative emotions with phone contact

and positive emotions during physical contact (Fingerman et al., 2021). Therefore, the aspect of

the older adults living alone has an increased risk of reduced levels of well-being. Additionally,
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the study concludes that physical contact is significant to maintain the positive well-being of

older adults.

COVID 19 impact on loneliness.

The study informs my research on ways in which COVID 19 increased loneliness among

older adults living alone. Loneliness has adverse impacts on the psychological state of an

individual therefore could be a barrier to achieving happiness and living a fulfilling life.

Loneliness has been linked to levels of stress and depression (Seifert & Hassler, 2020). The

study established that the levels of loneliness were affected by the time of the study. The study

involved a survey of 1,990 older adults in Switzerland. There were more levels of loneliness

among older adults before the call for older adult protection by the Federal council ad reduced

levels afterwards. Therefore, this provides a case scenario of ways of dealing with loneliness

among older adults to reduce its impacts. However, the study confirmed that not every elderly

individual experience loneliness, however, those living alone have a higher risk t loneliness and

consequently experience its consequences.

Psychological risk

COVID 19 posed a great psychological risk to older adults. The psychological impacts of

the COVID 19 vary with age. A third of the male participants and half of the female participants

had a self-reported sign of emotional distress which they attributed to lockdown and other

mitigation measures of the pandemic (Paz García-Portilla et al., 2020) Following the outbreak,

the older adults responded with avoidance in their subsequent behaviours followed by anxiety

and depressive disorder. Since older adults have faced a wide range of challenges in their lives,

they have increased resilience as compared to younger adults thereby explaining the reduced rate
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of depressive response towards the outbreak of the pandemic. Therefore, it is essential to build

resilience among older adults to prevent psychological effects.

High risk of COVID 19

Studies established that older adults are at high risk for acquiring COVID 19. The risk of

COVID 19 cuts across all the older adults especially those with multi-morbidity including those

living alone, living with families and those at assisted living facilities (Applegate & Ouslander,

2020). As a result of the fact, there increased a high level of fear during the onset of the

pandemic. Additionally, due to their high risk and the increased risk of fatality rates among the

age group when infected by the virus, there was increased self-isolation that promotes loneliness.

Loneliness has adverse effects on the emotional and psychological well-being of an individual.

Since they are at high risk, the younger families and friends of the older adults adopted electronic

contact rather than physical contact to ensure their safety.

In conclusion, the outbreak of the COVID 9 pandemic has had a great impact on

individuals, especially on the older adults living alone. Following the necessity to control the

spread of the virus various measures such as lockdown and self-isolation have impacted the

social interactions of the older adults, therefore, posing a risk to their psychological factors. The

older adults are a vulnerable group and therefore need help from other active individuals. In the

United States, 21% of male and 34% of female older adults live alone. The self-isolation

mitigation measure has increased the level of loneliness that deteriorates the emotional and

psychological well-being of older adults. Therefore, older need to be staying in a social place to

improve their emotional and psychological well-being by improving their physical interaction

and reducing loneliness.

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References

Applegate, W. B., & Ouslander, J. G. (2020). COVID-19 Presents High Risk to Older Persons.

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 68(4), 681. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.16426

Paz García-Portilla, Lorena de la Fuente Tomás, Teresa Bobes-Bascarán, Luis Jiménez Treviño,

Paula Zurrón Madera, María Suárez Álvarez, Isabel Menéndez Miranda, Leticia García

Álvarez, Pilar A. Sáiz Martínez & Julio Bobes (2021) Are older adults also at higher

psychological risk from COVID-19?, Aging & Mental Health, 25:7, 1297-1304, DOI:

10.1080/13607863.2020.1805723

Seifert, A., & Hassler, B. (2020). Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on loneliness among older

adults. Frontiers in sociology, 5, 87. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2020.590935

Fingerman, K. L., Ng, Y. T., Zhang, S., Britt, K., Colera, G., Birditt, K. S., & Charles, S. T.

(2021). Living alone during COVID-19: Social contact and emotional well-being among

older adults. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 76(3), e116-e121.

https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbaa200