Dataset Information

COVID-19-Related Loneliness and Psychiatric Symptoms Among Older Adults: The Buffering Role of Subjective Age.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE:The study examined whether subjective age moderated the relationship between loneliness due to the COVID-19 pandemic and psychiatric symptoms. METHODS:A convenience sample of older adult Israelis (N?=?277, mean age?=?69.58 ± 6.72) completed web-based questionnaires comprising loneliness, anxiety, depressive, and peritraumatic distress symptoms. They also reported how old they felt. RESULTS:The positive relationship between loneliness due to the COVID-19 pandemic and psychiatric symptoms was weak among those who felt younger than their age while this very same relationship was robust among those feeling older. CONCLUSIONS:Young subjective age may weaken the loneliness-symptom association among older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Older adults holding an older age identity are more susceptible to the adverse effects of loneliness. Although preliminary, the findings may inform screening and interventions. Subjective age may help identify those at high risk in suffering from loneliness, and suggest interventions aimed at ameliorating both loneliness and older subjective ages.

SUBMITTER: Shrira A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7251397 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

COVID-19-Related Loneliness and Psychiatric Symptoms Among Older Adults: The Buffering Role of Subjective Age.

Shrira Amit A Hoffman Yaakov Y Bodner Ehud E Palgi Yuval Y

The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry 20200527 11

<h4>Objective</h4>The study examined whether subjective age moderated the relationship between loneliness due to the COVID-19 pandemic and psychiatric symptoms.<h4>Methods</h4>A convenience sample of older adult Israelis (N = 277, mean age = 69.58 ± 6.72) completed web-based questionnaires comprising loneliness, anxiety, depressive, and peritraumatic distress symptoms. They also reported how old they felt.<h4>Results</h4>The positive relationship between loneliness due to the COVID-19 pandemic a ...[more]

PMID: 32561276

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Project description:During the Covid-19 pandemic, older people have been in the spotlight of the public debate. Given their higher risk of severe outcomes of the disease, they have been described as especially vulnerable and as a burden to others and society. We thus wanted to investigate how older people’s perception of their own age, that is their subjective age, as well as their Covid-19 related risks and worries were related during the pandemic and whether these relationships varied according to participants’ subjective health. We used data from the longitudinal CRISIS study which was conducted in the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg in June and October 2020. Participants were aged 60–98 and responded on questionnaires regarding their subjective age, worry of falling ill with Covid-19, perceived risk of contracting the virus, perceived risk of falling seriously ill if they contracted Covid-19, as well as their subjective health and covariates. Three cross-lagged panel models were constructed to explore the longitudinal, bidirectional relationships between the variables. Cross-sectionally, a higher subjective age was related to more perceived risk of a serious course of disease. Longitudinally, subjective age and worry did not show any significant association over time, and neither did subjective age and perceived risk of contracting the virus. However, subjective health significantly moderated the relationship of worry and subjective age, showing different trajectories in the relationship depending on whether subjective health was good or bad. Higher perceived risk of falling seriously ill increased subjective age over time. Again, subjective health moderated this relationship: the perceived risk of falling seriously ill affected subjective age only for those with better subjective health. Our findings show the interactive relationship between subjective age and Covid-19 related cognitions and emotions and provide guidance for identifying older people that are most susceptible for negative age-related communication during the pandemic.

Project description:Background and objectivesLoneliness is consistently linked to worse depression/depressive symptoms; however, there are few studies that have examined whether the relationship between loneliness and depressive symptoms varies by race. The purpose of this study was to determine whether race moderated the relationship between loneliness and depressive symptoms.Research design and methodsData come from the 2014 wave of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) Core survey and Psychosocial Leave-Behind Questionnaire; only black and white older adults were included in the analysis (N = 6,469). Depressive symptoms were operationalized by the eight-item Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale; however, the "felt lonely" item was removed given concerns with collinearity. Loneliness was operationalized using the Hughes 3-Item Loneliness Scale. Sociodemographic variables included gender, age, education, household income, employment status, marital status, and living alone or with others. Furthermore, social support and negative interactions from family members and friends, and religious service attendance were included in the analysis. Lastly, we created an interaction term between race and loneliness. All analyses used survey weights to account for the complex multistage sampling design of the HRS. Missing data were multiply imputed.ResultsIn multivariable analysis, we found race significantly moderated the relationship between loneliness and depressive symptoms while controlling for sociodemographic covariates, social support and negative interaction variables, and religious service attendance.Discussion and implicationsOur findings demonstrate a differential racial effect for loneliness and depressive symptoms. For both blacks and whites, greater loneliness affected depressive symptoms; however, the effect was stronger among whites than it was for blacks. Given this is one of the first studies to examine the differential effects of race on loneliness and depressive symptoms, more research is necessary to determine the consistency of these results.

Dataset Information

COVID-19-Related Loneliness and Psychiatric Symptoms Among Older Adults: The Buffering Role of Subjective Age.

Publications

COVID-19-Related Loneliness and Psychiatric Symptoms Among Older Adults: The Buffering Role of Subjective Age.

Similar Datasets

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