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Ageing and Loneliness in Times of Pandemic: A Scoping Review

Society is immersed in a process of demographic transformation of great relevance: the ageing of the population. During the ageing stage, relevant changes occur, such as age-related losses, lack of formal and informal support or changes in social roles, which can cause situations of isolation or lon...

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Autores principales: Ruiz-Callado, Raúl, Jareño-Ruiz, Diana, Fabregat-Cabrera, María Elena, Penalva-Lorca, María Manuela
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10093808/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37047952
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20075337
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author Ruiz-Callado, Raúl
Jareño-Ruiz, Diana
Fabregat-Cabrera, María Elena
Penalva-Lorca, María Manuela
author_facet Ruiz-Callado, Raúl
Jareño-Ruiz, Diana
Fabregat-Cabrera, María Elena
Penalva-Lorca, María Manuela
author_sort Ruiz-Callado, Raúl
collection PubMed
description Society is immersed in a process of demographic transformation of great relevance: the ageing of the population. During the ageing stage, relevant changes occur, such as age-related losses, lack of formal and informal support or changes in social roles, which can cause situations of isolation or loneliness in older people. After the Spanish government decreed a state of alarm throughout the national territory in response to the arrival of SARS-CoV2, the confinement of the entire population was established, and only essential services and authorized persons could continue to carry out their daily activities and professional tasks. In addition, since the beginning of the pandemic, older people were considered high-risk people, a circumstance that increased their isolation situation. Objective: Understand, organize and systematically analyse the scientific evidence generated in relation to the impact that the COVID−19 pandemic has had on the processes and feelings of isolation and loneliness of the elderly population, from the beginning of the health crisis until the date of search. Materials and methods: a scoping review was conducted using the methodology of Arksey and O’Malley, which included a review of the studies available in the online databases Proquest, Scopus and WOS. From the search, information related to the isolation and collective of elderly people during the pandemic was extracted. Results: a total of 32 articles were included, from which three fundamental areas of analysis emerged and three issues emerged: older people and institutionalisation during the pandemic, ageism and hospitalisation of the elderly during the pandemic, and loneliness and isolation of older people throughout the pandemic. Discussion: the lack of material resources and infrastructures to be able to face the problem of isolation in institutions was evident. The importance of acquiring, on the part of the elderly, competences, knowledge and skills in new technologies in order to continue with contact with their peer group and family was also observed. Conclusions: this study identifies areas already understood, as well as knowledge gaps, that allow for determining opportunities for future research and thus the ability to improve in situations similar to the one that occurred.
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spelling pubmed-100938082023-04-13 Ageing and Loneliness in Times of Pandemic: A Scoping Review Ruiz-Callado, Raúl Jareño-Ruiz, Diana Fabregat-Cabrera, María Elena Penalva-Lorca, María Manuela Int J Environ Res Public Health Systematic Review Society is immersed in a process of demographic transformation of great relevance: the ageing of the population. During the ageing stage, relevant changes occur, such as age-related losses, lack of formal and informal support or changes in social roles, which can cause situations of isolation or loneliness in older people. After the Spanish government decreed a state of alarm throughout the national territory in response to the arrival of SARS-CoV2, the confinement of the entire population was established, and only essential services and authorized persons could continue to carry out their daily activities and professional tasks. In addition, since the beginning of the pandemic, older people were considered high-risk people, a circumstance that increased their isolation situation. Objective: Understand, organize and systematically analyse the scientific evidence generated in relation to the impact that the COVID−19 pandemic has had on the processes and feelings of isolation and loneliness of the elderly population, from the beginning of the health crisis until the date of search. Materials and methods: a scoping review was conducted using the methodology of Arksey and O’Malley, which included a review of the studies available in the online databases Proquest, Scopus and WOS. From the search, information related to the isolation and collective of elderly people during the pandemic was extracted. Results: a total of 32 articles were included, from which three fundamental areas of analysis emerged and three issues emerged: older people and institutionalisation during the pandemic, ageism and hospitalisation of the elderly during the pandemic, and loneliness and isolation of older people throughout the pandemic. Discussion: the lack of material resources and infrastructures to be able to face the problem of isolation in institutions was evident. The importance of acquiring, on the part of the elderly, competences, knowledge and skills in new technologies in order to continue with contact with their peer group and family was also observed. Conclusions: this study identifies areas already understood, as well as knowledge gaps, that allow for determining opportunities for future research and thus the ability to improve in situations similar to the one that occurred. MDPI 2023-03-30 /pmc/articles/PMC10093808/ /pubmed/37047952 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20075337 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Systematic Review
Ruiz-Callado, Raúl
Jareño-Ruiz, Diana
Fabregat-Cabrera, María Elena
Penalva-Lorca, María Manuela
Ageing and Loneliness in Times of Pandemic: A Scoping Review
title Ageing and Loneliness in Times of Pandemic: A Scoping Review
title_full Ageing and Loneliness in Times of Pandemic: A Scoping Review
title_fullStr Ageing and Loneliness in Times of Pandemic: A Scoping Review
title_full_unstemmed Ageing and Loneliness in Times of Pandemic: A Scoping Review
title_short Ageing and Loneliness in Times of Pandemic: A Scoping Review
title_sort ageing and loneliness in times of pandemic: a scoping review
topic Systematic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10093808/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37047952
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20075337
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