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Living Alone During COVID-19: Social Contact and Emotional Well-Being among Older Adults

The COVID-19 outbreak and the associated physical distancing measures dramatically altered the social world for most older adults, but people who live alone may have been disproportionately affected. The current study examined how living alone was related to social contact and emotional well-being a...

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Autores principales: Ng, Yee To, Fingerman, Karen, Zhang, Shiyang, Britt, Katherine, Colera, Gianna, Birditt, Kira, Charles, Susan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7740883/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igaa057.3479
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author Ng, Yee To
Fingerman, Karen
Zhang, Shiyang
Britt, Katherine
Colera, Gianna
Birditt, Kira
Charles, Susan
author_facet Ng, Yee To
Fingerman, Karen
Zhang, Shiyang
Britt, Katherine
Colera, Gianna
Birditt, Kira
Charles, Susan
author_sort Ng, Yee To
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 outbreak and the associated physical distancing measures dramatically altered the social world for most older adults, but people who live alone may have been disproportionately affected. The current study examined how living alone was related to social contact and emotional well-being among older adults during the pandemic. Adults (N = 226) aged 69+ completed a brief survey assessing their living situation, social contact with different social partners (in person, by phone, electronically), and emotions during the morning, afternoon and evening the prior day. Older adults who live alone were less likely to see others in person or to receive or provide help, and reported less positive emotion the prior day than those who lived with others. Living alone was associated with more positive emotions concurrent with in-person contact. In contrast, phone contact was related to higher levels of negate affect among those living alone, but not among those who live with others. Findings suggest older adults who live alone may be more reactive to social contact during the COVID 19 outbreak than older adults who reside with others. In-person contact appears to confer distinct benefits not available via telephone contact, suggesting that possible interventions during the pandemic may work best with safe forms of in-person contact.
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spelling pubmed-77408832020-12-21 Living Alone During COVID-19: Social Contact and Emotional Well-Being among Older Adults Ng, Yee To Fingerman, Karen Zhang, Shiyang Britt, Katherine Colera, Gianna Birditt, Kira Charles, Susan Innov Aging Abstracts The COVID-19 outbreak and the associated physical distancing measures dramatically altered the social world for most older adults, but people who live alone may have been disproportionately affected. The current study examined how living alone was related to social contact and emotional well-being among older adults during the pandemic. Adults (N = 226) aged 69+ completed a brief survey assessing their living situation, social contact with different social partners (in person, by phone, electronically), and emotions during the morning, afternoon and evening the prior day. Older adults who live alone were less likely to see others in person or to receive or provide help, and reported less positive emotion the prior day than those who lived with others. Living alone was associated with more positive emotions concurrent with in-person contact. In contrast, phone contact was related to higher levels of negate affect among those living alone, but not among those who live with others. Findings suggest older adults who live alone may be more reactive to social contact during the COVID 19 outbreak than older adults who reside with others. In-person contact appears to confer distinct benefits not available via telephone contact, suggesting that possible interventions during the pandemic may work best with safe forms of in-person contact. Oxford University Press 2020-12-16 /pmc/articles/PMC7740883/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igaa057.3479 Text en © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Abstracts
Ng, Yee To
Fingerman, Karen
Zhang, Shiyang
Britt, Katherine
Colera, Gianna
Birditt, Kira
Charles, Susan
Living Alone During COVID-19: Social Contact and Emotional Well-Being among Older Adults
title Living Alone During COVID-19: Social Contact and Emotional Well-Being among Older Adults
title_full Living Alone During COVID-19: Social Contact and Emotional Well-Being among Older Adults
title_fullStr Living Alone During COVID-19: Social Contact and Emotional Well-Being among Older Adults
title_full_unstemmed Living Alone During COVID-19: Social Contact and Emotional Well-Being among Older Adults
title_short Living Alone During COVID-19: Social Contact and Emotional Well-Being among Older Adults
title_sort living alone during covid-19: social contact and emotional well-being among older adults
topic Abstracts
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7740883/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igaa057.3479
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