Vulnerability and Fragility Expose Older Adults to the Potential Dangers of COVID-19 Pandemic (original) (raw)
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2021
The objective of this review article is to narrate the health considerations of older adults during COVID-19. Soon there will be more elderly people than youth, and more people at an alarming age than ever before. The proportion of older people and the life expectancy are growing worldwide as well. It is expected that the number of people aged 65 or older will rise from an estimated 524 million in 2010 to almost 1.5 billion in 2050, with much of the increase in developing countries. The most vulnerable category to Coronavirus (COVID-19) and those with chronic underlying medical conditions are older adults aged 65 or older. As a result of disruptions to social activities, communication, and assistance, the COVID-19 crisis is likely to have a significant impact on both the mental and physical outlook of older individuals. Since the start of the COVID19 pandemic and the pressure of lockdown measures, abuse against older adults has increased severely. Recommendation to ensure appropriat...
Editorial: COVID-19, Aging, and Public Health
Frontiers in Public Health
INTRODUCTION COVID-19 has had especially detrimental effects on older adults, who have disproportionately experienced severe complications, hospitalizations, and mortality as a result. The public health response has noted the vulnerability of older adults in these ways, but less is known about how older adults perceive their risks, follow recommended guidelines, interact with family and friends, negotiate health care and social services, and navigate their home and community environments. Further, there is limited information about differences in these experiences within and between populations or the successes and challenges of public health professionals and systems to address these concerns, especially from an international perspective. The "COVID-19, Aging, and Public Health" Research Topic addresses this knowledge gap by including contributions on public health and ageism, health care and social service responses to COVID-19, health equity/social determinants of health, social isolation and social support, risk perceptions and coping, and active aging and health-related behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Research Topic incorporates a range of article types to inform health and aging research, practice, and policy strategies, including brief research reports, original research articles, systematic reviews, general commentaries, opinion and perspective pieces, and policy briefs. The Research Topic also underscores the broad geographic scope of aging and public health research, with contributions from Asia (
Geriatric vulnerability during COVID-19 pandemic
NILES journal for Geriatric and Gerontology
Background: geriatric persons are more likely to be frail and have less resilience to psychological stressors. Objectives: to determine elders vulnerability during COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Predefined questionnaires were fulfilled by 500 participants from various governorates in Egypt. The survey consists of four tools including: COVID-19 anxiety scale, COVID-19 Coping inventory (C-19C), The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, State version (STAIS-Anxiety scale) and Coping Responses inventory (CRI). One way ANOVA test was conducted to compare the effects of age on different aspects of anxiety and coping related to COVID-19 pandemic followed by a Tukey post hoc test to make pair wise comparisons between group means. Results: The elders group (aged ≥ 60 years) consisted of 24 males and 46 females. In comparison to younger age groups, older females had the highest scores in the COVID-19 anxiety scale (M= 61.565, p-value < 0.001) and the lowest scores in different subscales of both coping scales. This was shown in the coping responses inventory (M= 99.369, p <0.01) with seven out of its subscales and COVID-19 coping Inventory with three of its subscales. While, older males had the lowest scores in coping strategies inventory (M= 103.75, p-value <0.05) with all of its 16 subscales except for the emotional discharge subscale and in the COVID-19 coping Inventory (M= 8.10870, p-value .005) with 2 of its subscales. However, they didn't have statistically significant increase in COVID-19 anxiety pandemic. Conclusion: COVID-19 pandemic has a major psychological impact on the society with the greatest burden among elders females.
Cureus
Older adults are vulnerable to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and efforts have been made to protect them. However, one protective mechanism, isolation of older adults, has resulted in unintended physical, mental, emotional, social, and financial consequences. We conducted a comprehensive literature review to understand the effects of COVID-19 and the new COVID-19 vaccine on older adults and the factors affecting vaccine acceptance. A review of the literature was conducted to understand the unique challenges COVID-19 creates for older adults. It was found that older adults are significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting isolation. Physical health can be improved by increasing contact with healthcare providers and opportunities for physical activity. Mental and emotional health can be improved by addressing fear and uncertainty about the pandemic. Social health interventions should be targeted at ensuring older adults have contact with loved ones both in person and in the virtual format. To ameliorate financial concerns, interventions should be targeted at assistance with food and medications.
Challenges Faced by Elderly During Covid-19 Pandemic: An Overview
Acta Scientific Medical Sciences, 2022
While in developed nations the adult who is 65 years or above is considered to be elderly. There would be around 2 billion people belonging to the old age segment across the world by 2050. The rise in the ageing population poses a number of challenges and this pandemic has increased the number of challenges. Several studies have been done for assessing the impact of the pandemic on overall health of elderly which is much more as compared to the others. Studies from across the globe show that risk of the pandemic is much more in elderly. Elders are specifically influenced by the social vulnerability, especially during the lockdown or quarantine. They felt lonely, anxious and uncertain which give rise to insomnia and depressive disorders. Many elderly people live alone because their children maybe working in some other city or country.
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Older Adults: Rapid Review
JMIR Aging, 2021
Background The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the lives of countless members of the general population. Older adults are known to experience loneliness, age discrimination, and excessive worry. It is therefore reasonable to anticipate that they would experience greater negative outcomes related to the COVID-19 pandemic given their increased isolation and risk for complications than younger adults. Objective This study aims to synthesize the existing research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and associated isolation and protective measures, on older adults. The secondary objective is to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and associated isolation and protective measures, on older adults with Alzheimer disease and related dementias. Methods A rapid review of the published literature was conducted on October 6, 2020, through a search of 6 online databases to synthesize results from published original studies regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic o...
Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on Health and Wellbeing of Older People: A Comprehensive Review
Annals of Geriatric Medicine and Research
The current pandemic caused by the newly described severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to spread, with devastating effects on the functioning of society and the world economy. By June 4, 2020, 6,416,828 people had been infected, with 382,867 deaths worldwide. While new cases are declining in some countries in the European region, the disease continues to spread, almost unchanged, in the United States, and a steady increase in the number of infections in the African region has been reported. 1) The first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was reported in Wuhan in the Hubei province of China on December 12, 2019, the origin of which was traced to the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan; moreover, genomic studies confirmed that the causative organism to be of bat origin. 2) COVID-19 mainly spreads via droplets from saliva and nasal discharge of infected people, and its common symptoms include fever, dry cough, shortness of breath, diarrhea, and vomiting. 3) COVID-19 is predominantly observed in young and middle-aged people with no significant sex difference. Most infections are either The pandemic is unavoidable; in addition to increased morbidity and mortality, they profoundly affect people and economies at every level. The negative effects of pandemics are more severe in marginalized populations such as older adults who have higher risks of acquiring infection, more disease-related complications, and increased risks of death. Furthermore, older people are affected by policy decisions and containment measures taken during pandemics. With rapid patient turnover and overwhelmed health care facilities, this older population may not receive proper medical care. In addition to poor clinical outcomes, such measures have profound negative effects on the mental health of older populations.
Challenges Of Elderly People In The Covid-19 Pandemic
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prevails as an exceedingly transmittable disease, was first noticed in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease has spread to most of the countries and territories around the world. India is not an exemption; the disease was first identified on 30 January 2020 in Kerala. The number of infected people in entire India is rising day by day. This study focused on the difficulties faced by elderly people who are predominantly affected during the span of COVID-19 Pandemic. Elders were mainly influenced by social vulnerability; especially experienced at the times of lockdown and quarantine were loneliness, anxiety and uncertainty can give rise to depressive disorders and insomnia. The challenges faced by the elders during COVID-19.
Challenges of Older Adults During COVID-19
BOOK , 2020
COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenge for all. First reported in Wuhan province in China on 31 December 2019 (WHO, 2020) and it has been declared as a global pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020 (WHO, 2020). The first confirmed case of COVID-19 reported in India was on 30 January in Kerala (WHO,2020). Of late, India ranks 3rd in the number of active COVID-19 cases in the world (as on 11/07/2020 active cases are 2 83407 and lost 22123 lives) (My Gov, 2020). As seen in the worst affected countries, all age groups are equally vulnerable to COVID-19. However, the sixty-plus (60+) age group with comorbidity are the worst affected in terms of mortality rate and related complications (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 2020). In this juncture, being an ageing country of having more than 7.8 % of older adults to its total population, and having a diverse socioeconomic condition, India needs special strategies to protect its older adult’s population from the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic