Cargando…
Exploring Loneliness, Fear and Depression among Older Adults during the COVID-19 Era: A Cross-Sectional Study in Greek Provincial Towns
Background: With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, life changed abruptly for older adults in Greece. Social isolation, lockdowns, the fear of serious illness and death, all contributed to an increased risk of developing depression. Objective: To explore the presence and severity of depression in o...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2023
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10178736/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37174782 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11091234 |
_version_ | 1785040931881222144 |
---|---|
author | Moustakopoulou, Lamprini Adamakidou, Theodoula Plakas, Sotirios Drakopoulou, Marianna Apostolara, Paraskevi Mantoudi, Alexandra Mastrogiannis, Dimos Zartaloudi, Afroditi Parissopoulos, Stelios Koreli, Alexandra Mantzorou, Marianna |
author_facet | Moustakopoulou, Lamprini Adamakidou, Theodoula Plakas, Sotirios Drakopoulou, Marianna Apostolara, Paraskevi Mantoudi, Alexandra Mastrogiannis, Dimos Zartaloudi, Afroditi Parissopoulos, Stelios Koreli, Alexandra Mantzorou, Marianna |
author_sort | Moustakopoulou, Lamprini |
collection | PubMed |
description | Background: With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, life changed abruptly for older adults in Greece. Social isolation, lockdowns, the fear of serious illness and death, all contributed to an increased risk of developing depression. Objective: To explore the presence and severity of depression in older adults in Greek provincial towns during the pandemic and to explore any possible relationships with loneliness and fear. Methods: A convenience sample of 200 participants aged >65, completed a socio-demographic form, the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale, the Geriatric Depression-15 Scale (GDS-15) and the COVID-19 Fear Scale (FCV-19S). Data were collected from April to May 2022. Results: The average age of participants was 76.6 years and 35.5% of the participants presented depressive symptoms (mean prevalenceof depression 5 ± 3.7). A moderate to low level of loneliness (mean value 39 ± 11.3) and a moderate level of COVID-19 fear (mean value 18.9 ± 6.5) were also experienced. Higher levels of loneliness were found among participants with lower perceived health status and among those participants registered in Primary Health and Social Care (PHSC) services. Loneliness was positively correlated with depression (r = 0.7, p < 0.001), and increased loneliness and depression were associated with an increase in fear of COVID-19 (r = 0.2, p = 0.01 for both). Conclusions: During the pandemic, older adults experienced loneliness, fear of COVID-19 and depression which were positively associated with each other. It is imperative to develop PHSC policies that are aimed at addressing the mental health problems of the older population, which have been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, through developing their resilience, offering psychological support and promoting social connections. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10178736 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-101787362023-05-13 Exploring Loneliness, Fear and Depression among Older Adults during the COVID-19 Era: A Cross-Sectional Study in Greek Provincial Towns Moustakopoulou, Lamprini Adamakidou, Theodoula Plakas, Sotirios Drakopoulou, Marianna Apostolara, Paraskevi Mantoudi, Alexandra Mastrogiannis, Dimos Zartaloudi, Afroditi Parissopoulos, Stelios Koreli, Alexandra Mantzorou, Marianna Healthcare (Basel) Article Background: With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, life changed abruptly for older adults in Greece. Social isolation, lockdowns, the fear of serious illness and death, all contributed to an increased risk of developing depression. Objective: To explore the presence and severity of depression in older adults in Greek provincial towns during the pandemic and to explore any possible relationships with loneliness and fear. Methods: A convenience sample of 200 participants aged >65, completed a socio-demographic form, the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale, the Geriatric Depression-15 Scale (GDS-15) and the COVID-19 Fear Scale (FCV-19S). Data were collected from April to May 2022. Results: The average age of participants was 76.6 years and 35.5% of the participants presented depressive symptoms (mean prevalenceof depression 5 ± 3.7). A moderate to low level of loneliness (mean value 39 ± 11.3) and a moderate level of COVID-19 fear (mean value 18.9 ± 6.5) were also experienced. Higher levels of loneliness were found among participants with lower perceived health status and among those participants registered in Primary Health and Social Care (PHSC) services. Loneliness was positively correlated with depression (r = 0.7, p < 0.001), and increased loneliness and depression were associated with an increase in fear of COVID-19 (r = 0.2, p = 0.01 for both). Conclusions: During the pandemic, older adults experienced loneliness, fear of COVID-19 and depression which were positively associated with each other. It is imperative to develop PHSC policies that are aimed at addressing the mental health problems of the older population, which have been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, through developing their resilience, offering psychological support and promoting social connections. MDPI 2023-04-26 /pmc/articles/PMC10178736/ /pubmed/37174782 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11091234 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 | Article Moustakopoulou, Lamprini Adamakidou, Theodoula Plakas, Sotirios Drakopoulou, Marianna Apostolara, Paraskevi Mantoudi, Alexandra Mastrogiannis, Dimos Zartaloudi, Afroditi Parissopoulos, Stelios Koreli, Alexandra Mantzorou, Marianna Exploring Loneliness, Fear and Depression among Older Adults during the COVID-19 Era: A Cross-Sectional Study in Greek Provincial Towns |
title | Exploring Loneliness, Fear and Depression among Older Adults during the COVID-19 Era: A Cross-Sectional Study in Greek Provincial Towns |
title_full | Exploring Loneliness, Fear and Depression among Older Adults during the COVID-19 Era: A Cross-Sectional Study in Greek Provincial Towns |
title_fullStr | Exploring Loneliness, Fear and Depression among Older Adults during the COVID-19 Era: A Cross-Sectional Study in Greek Provincial Towns |
title_full_unstemmed | Exploring Loneliness, Fear and Depression among Older Adults during the COVID-19 Era: A Cross-Sectional Study in Greek Provincial Towns |
title_short | Exploring Loneliness, Fear and Depression among Older Adults during the COVID-19 Era: A Cross-Sectional Study in Greek Provincial Towns |
title_sort | exploring loneliness, fear and depression among older adults during the covid-19 era: a cross-sectional study in greek provincial towns |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10178736/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37174782 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11091234 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT moustakopouloulamprini exploringlonelinessfearanddepressionamongolderadultsduringthecovid19eraacrosssectionalstudyingreekprovincialtowns AT adamakidoutheodoula exploringlonelinessfearanddepressionamongolderadultsduringthecovid19eraacrosssectionalstudyingreekprovincialtowns AT plakassotirios exploringlonelinessfearanddepressionamongolderadultsduringthecovid19eraacrosssectionalstudyingreekprovincialtowns AT drakopouloumarianna exploringlonelinessfearanddepressionamongolderadultsduringthecovid19eraacrosssectionalstudyingreekprovincialtowns AT apostolaraparaskevi exploringlonelinessfearanddepressionamongolderadultsduringthecovid19eraacrosssectionalstudyingreekprovincialtowns AT mantoudialexandra exploringlonelinessfearanddepressionamongolderadultsduringthecovid19eraacrosssectionalstudyingreekprovincialtowns AT mastrogiannisdimos exploringlonelinessfearanddepressionamongolderadultsduringthecovid19eraacrosssectionalstudyingreekprovincialtowns AT zartaloudiafroditi exploringlonelinessfearanddepressionamongolderadultsduringthecovid19eraacrosssectionalstudyingreekprovincialtowns AT parissopoulosstelios exploringlonelinessfearanddepressionamongolderadultsduringthecovid19eraacrosssectionalstudyingreekprovincialtowns AT korelialexandra exploringlonelinessfearanddepressionamongolderadultsduringthecovid19eraacrosssectionalstudyingreekprovincialtowns AT mantzoroumarianna exploringlonelinessfearanddepressionamongolderadultsduringthecovid19eraacrosssectionalstudyingreekprovincialtowns |