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Health Service Accessibility, Mental Health, and Changes in Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study of Older Adults

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the access of older adults to health services. The two objectives of this study are understanding the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on older adults’ access to health services and exploring how health service accessibility during the pandemic influenced older a...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: von Humboldt, Sofia, Low, Gail, Leal, Isabel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8999009/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35409957
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19074277
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author von Humboldt, Sofia
Low, Gail
Leal, Isabel
author_facet von Humboldt, Sofia
Low, Gail
Leal, Isabel
author_sort von Humboldt, Sofia
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the access of older adults to health services. The two objectives of this study are understanding the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on older adults’ access to health services and exploring how health service accessibility during the pandemic influenced older adults’ mental health and self-reported changes in behavior. This study included 346 older adults. Content analysis produced five themes: (1) decreased physical accessibility to health care providers (78%); (2) increased use of online health services and other virtual health care (69%); (3) growth in the online prescription of medication (67%); (4) difficulty obtaining information and accessing non-communicable disease and mental health indicators (65%); and (5) postponement of medical specialist consultations (51%). Regarding mental health, three themes emerged: (1) increased symptoms of anxiety, distress, and depression (89%); (2) the experience of traumatic situations (61%); and (3) the augmented use of alcohol or drugs (56%). Finally, the following changes in behavior were indicated: (1) frustrated behavior (92%); (2) emotional explosions (79%); and (3) changes in sleeping and eating behaviors (43%). Access to health services may have influenced the mental health and behavior of older adults, hence interventions in a pandemic must address their interactions with health services, their needs, and their well-being.
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spelling pubmed-89990092022-04-12 Health Service Accessibility, Mental Health, and Changes in Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study of Older Adults von Humboldt, Sofia Low, Gail Leal, Isabel Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the access of older adults to health services. The two objectives of this study are understanding the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on older adults’ access to health services and exploring how health service accessibility during the pandemic influenced older adults’ mental health and self-reported changes in behavior. This study included 346 older adults. Content analysis produced five themes: (1) decreased physical accessibility to health care providers (78%); (2) increased use of online health services and other virtual health care (69%); (3) growth in the online prescription of medication (67%); (4) difficulty obtaining information and accessing non-communicable disease and mental health indicators (65%); and (5) postponement of medical specialist consultations (51%). Regarding mental health, three themes emerged: (1) increased symptoms of anxiety, distress, and depression (89%); (2) the experience of traumatic situations (61%); and (3) the augmented use of alcohol or drugs (56%). Finally, the following changes in behavior were indicated: (1) frustrated behavior (92%); (2) emotional explosions (79%); and (3) changes in sleeping and eating behaviors (43%). Access to health services may have influenced the mental health and behavior of older adults, hence interventions in a pandemic must address their interactions with health services, their needs, and their well-being. MDPI 2022-04-02 /pmc/articles/PMC8999009/ /pubmed/35409957 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19074277 Text en © 2022 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
von Humboldt, Sofia
Low, Gail
Leal, Isabel
Health Service Accessibility, Mental Health, and Changes in Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study of Older Adults
title Health Service Accessibility, Mental Health, and Changes in Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study of Older Adults
title_full Health Service Accessibility, Mental Health, and Changes in Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study of Older Adults
title_fullStr Health Service Accessibility, Mental Health, and Changes in Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study of Older Adults
title_full_unstemmed Health Service Accessibility, Mental Health, and Changes in Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study of Older Adults
title_short Health Service Accessibility, Mental Health, and Changes in Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study of Older Adults
title_sort health service accessibility, mental health, and changes in behavior during the covid-19 pandemic: a qualitative study of older adults
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8999009/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35409957
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19074277
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