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Compliance to Recommendations and Mental Health Consequences among Elderly in Sweden during the Initial Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Cross Sectional Online Survey

Background (1): In the wake of COVID-19, elderly people have been labelled a risk group. As the pandemic is a new crisis in Sweden, we have no knowledge on how this group perceives the information and recommendations being provided. Complying with these recommendations entails physical distancing an...

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Autores principales: Gustavsson, Johanna, Beckman, Linda
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7432611/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32722624
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17155380
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author Gustavsson, Johanna
Beckman, Linda
author_facet Gustavsson, Johanna
Beckman, Linda
author_sort Gustavsson, Johanna
collection PubMed
description Background (1): In the wake of COVID-19, elderly people have been labelled a risk group. As the pandemic is a new crisis in Sweden, we have no knowledge on how this group perceives the information and recommendations being provided. Complying with these recommendations entails physical distancing and, for some, isolation at home. Methods (2): From 16 April to 15 May 2020, we conducted an online survey targeting people aged 70 and older in Sweden (n = 1854). Results (3): A vast majority of the participants find the information and recommendations clear and reliable. Half of the participants report staying at home all the time, and up to half report decreased mental health in terms of, e.g., feeling depressed, having sleeping problems and that isolation makes them feel bad. However, elderly people are not a homogenous group, and there are gender and demographic differences. (4) Conclusion: At this point, we do not know the full extent of the ongoing pandemic, either in terms of duration or in terms of losses. The Swedish model for action on COVID-19 has not included a lock down. However, elderly people seem to comply with recommendations and practice social distancing to a high degree. This might lead to decreased mental health and long-term effects.
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spelling pubmed-74326112020-08-27 Compliance to Recommendations and Mental Health Consequences among Elderly in Sweden during the Initial Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Cross Sectional Online Survey Gustavsson, Johanna Beckman, Linda Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background (1): In the wake of COVID-19, elderly people have been labelled a risk group. As the pandemic is a new crisis in Sweden, we have no knowledge on how this group perceives the information and recommendations being provided. Complying with these recommendations entails physical distancing and, for some, isolation at home. Methods (2): From 16 April to 15 May 2020, we conducted an online survey targeting people aged 70 and older in Sweden (n = 1854). Results (3): A vast majority of the participants find the information and recommendations clear and reliable. Half of the participants report staying at home all the time, and up to half report decreased mental health in terms of, e.g., feeling depressed, having sleeping problems and that isolation makes them feel bad. However, elderly people are not a homogenous group, and there are gender and demographic differences. (4) Conclusion: At this point, we do not know the full extent of the ongoing pandemic, either in terms of duration or in terms of losses. The Swedish model for action on COVID-19 has not included a lock down. However, elderly people seem to comply with recommendations and practice social distancing to a high degree. This might lead to decreased mental health and long-term effects. MDPI 2020-07-26 2020-08 /pmc/articles/PMC7432611/ /pubmed/32722624 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17155380 Text en © 2020 by the authors. 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 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Gustavsson, Johanna
Beckman, Linda
Compliance to Recommendations and Mental Health Consequences among Elderly in Sweden during the Initial Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Cross Sectional Online Survey
title Compliance to Recommendations and Mental Health Consequences among Elderly in Sweden during the Initial Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Cross Sectional Online Survey
title_full Compliance to Recommendations and Mental Health Consequences among Elderly in Sweden during the Initial Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Cross Sectional Online Survey
title_fullStr Compliance to Recommendations and Mental Health Consequences among Elderly in Sweden during the Initial Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Cross Sectional Online Survey
title_full_unstemmed Compliance to Recommendations and Mental Health Consequences among Elderly in Sweden during the Initial Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Cross Sectional Online Survey
title_short Compliance to Recommendations and Mental Health Consequences among Elderly in Sweden during the Initial Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Cross Sectional Online Survey
title_sort compliance to recommendations and mental health consequences among elderly in sweden during the initial phase of the covid-19 pandemic—a cross sectional online survey
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7432611/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32722624
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17155380
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