Research study uses information from the Canadian Longitudinal Research Study on Aging (CLSA).
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a considerable impact on the mental health of older individuals residing in the community, with those who are lonely faring far even worse, according to new research from McMaster University
Utilizing information from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), a national team of scientists found that 43% of grownups aged 50 or older knowledgeable moderate or high levels of depressive signs at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which increased gradually.
Solitude was the most substantial predictor of intensifying depressive signs, with other pandemic-related stress factors, such as household dispute, likewise increasing the chances.
The study was published in the journal Nature Aging on November 25, 2021.
Parminder Raina, a professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact and scientific director of the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging. Credit: McMaster University.
The research was led by Parminder Raina, a professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact and scientific director of the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging.
” The COVID-19 pandemic has actually had a disproportionated effect on older adults, with groups of individuals who were already marginalized feeling a far higher negative impact,” said Raina, lead primary private investigator of the CLSA.
” Those who were socially separated, experiencing poorer health and of lower socioeconomic status were most likely to have intensifying anxiety as compared to their pre-pandemic depression status gathered as part of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging considering that 2011.”
The research study group included CLSA principal investigators Christina Wolfson of McGill University, Susan Kirkland of Dalhousie University, Lauren Griffith of McMaster, together with a national group of detectives.
They used telephone and web survey data to analyze how social factors and health-related elements such as income and social involvement, affected the occurrence of depressive signs during the preliminary lockdown beginning March 2020 and after re-opening following the very first wave of COVID-19 in Canada.
Caregiving responsibilities, separation from household, family conflict, and solitude were connected with a greater likelihood of high or moderate levels of depressive symptoms that worsened gradually.
Women were likewise more likely to have greater odds of depressive symptoms throughout the pandemic compared to men, and a higher number of females reported separation from family, increased time caregiving as well as barriers to caregiving.
In general, older grownups had twice the odds of depressive signs throughout the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic. Those with lower earnings and poorer health, either due to pre-existing health conditions or health concerns reported during the pandemic, experienced a greater effect.
” These findings recommend the negative psychological health impacts of the pandemic persist and might aggravate with time and underscores the need for tailored interventions to attend to pandemic stress factors and alleviate their influence on the mental health of older grownups,” Raina included.
The findings mark the very first published COVID-19 research study emerging from the CLSA, a national research platform on aging involving more than 50,000 community-dwelling middle-aged and older grownups at recruitment. The platform is funded by the Government of Canada through and Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
Reference: “A longitudinal analysis of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychological health of middle-aged and older adults from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging” by Parminder Raina, Christina Wolfson, Lauren Griffith, Susan Kirkland, Jacqueline McMillan, Nicole Basta, Divya Joshi, Urun Erbas Oz, Nazmul Sohel, Geva Maimon, Mary Thompson and CLSA group, 25 November 2021, Nature Aging.DOI: 10.1038/ s43587-021-00128-1.
Additional financing for the CLSA COVID-19 Questionnaire Study was supplied by the Juravinski Research Institute, McMaster University, the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging, the Nova Scotia COVID-19 Health Research Coalition, and the general public Health Agency of Canada.