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Changes in Older Adults’ Social Contact During the COVID-19 Pandemic

OBJECTIVES: To understand changes during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in weekly contact with nonresident family and friends for U.S. adults aged 70 and older in residential care and community settings. METHODS: Participants in the National Health and Aging Trends Study COVID-19 m...

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Autores principales: Freedman, Vicki A, Hu, Mengyao, Kasper, Judith D
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8522414/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34529083
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbab166
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author Freedman, Vicki A
Hu, Mengyao
Kasper, Judith D
author_facet Freedman, Vicki A
Hu, Mengyao
Kasper, Judith D
author_sort Freedman, Vicki A
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: To understand changes during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in weekly contact with nonresident family and friends for U.S. adults aged 70 and older in residential care and community settings. METHODS: Participants in the National Health and Aging Trends Study COVID-19 mail supplement (N = 3,098) reported frequency of phone, electronic, video, and in-person contact with nonresident family and friends in a typical week before and during the pandemic. We examined less than weekly contact by mode for those in residential care settings and community residents with and without limitations. We estimated multinomial logit models to examine predictors of change to less than weekly contact (vs. maintaining weekly or more contact) by mode, overall, and stratified by setting. RESULTS: Weekly in-person contact fell substantially (from 61% to 39%) and more so in residential care (from 56% to 22%), where nearly 4 in 10 transitioned to less than weekly in-person contact (doubling to 8 out of 10). Weekly or more contact was largely stable for electronic and telephone modes across settings. Weekly or more video contact increased mainly for community residents without limitations. Compared to community residents without limitations, those in assisted living or nursing homes had more than 5 times the odds (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 5.3; p = .01) of changing to less than weekly in-person contact; those in independent living also had higher odds of changing to less than weekly in-person (AOR = 2.6; p = .01) and video (AOR = 3.4; p = .01) contact. DISCUSSION: The pandemic revealed the importance of ensuring that communication technologies to maintain social ties are available to and usable by older adults, particularly for those living in residential care settings.
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spelling pubmed-85224142021-10-20 Changes in Older Adults’ Social Contact During the COVID-19 Pandemic Freedman, Vicki A Hu, Mengyao Kasper, Judith D J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci THE JOURNAL OF GERONTOLOGY: Social Sciences OBJECTIVES: To understand changes during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in weekly contact with nonresident family and friends for U.S. adults aged 70 and older in residential care and community settings. METHODS: Participants in the National Health and Aging Trends Study COVID-19 mail supplement (N = 3,098) reported frequency of phone, electronic, video, and in-person contact with nonresident family and friends in a typical week before and during the pandemic. We examined less than weekly contact by mode for those in residential care settings and community residents with and without limitations. We estimated multinomial logit models to examine predictors of change to less than weekly contact (vs. maintaining weekly or more contact) by mode, overall, and stratified by setting. RESULTS: Weekly in-person contact fell substantially (from 61% to 39%) and more so in residential care (from 56% to 22%), where nearly 4 in 10 transitioned to less than weekly in-person contact (doubling to 8 out of 10). Weekly or more contact was largely stable for electronic and telephone modes across settings. Weekly or more video contact increased mainly for community residents without limitations. Compared to community residents without limitations, those in assisted living or nursing homes had more than 5 times the odds (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 5.3; p = .01) of changing to less than weekly in-person contact; those in independent living also had higher odds of changing to less than weekly in-person (AOR = 2.6; p = .01) and video (AOR = 3.4; p = .01) contact. DISCUSSION: The pandemic revealed the importance of ensuring that communication technologies to maintain social ties are available to and usable by older adults, particularly for those living in residential care settings. Oxford University Press 2021-09-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8522414/ /pubmed/34529083 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbab166 Text en © The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com. https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_modelThis article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model)
spellingShingle THE JOURNAL OF GERONTOLOGY: Social Sciences
Freedman, Vicki A
Hu, Mengyao
Kasper, Judith D
Changes in Older Adults’ Social Contact During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title Changes in Older Adults’ Social Contact During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full Changes in Older Adults’ Social Contact During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr Changes in Older Adults’ Social Contact During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Changes in Older Adults’ Social Contact During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short Changes in Older Adults’ Social Contact During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort changes in older adults’ social contact during the covid-19 pandemic
topic THE JOURNAL OF GERONTOLOGY: Social Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8522414/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34529083
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbab166
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