A qualitative study about the mental health and wellbeing of older adults in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic

  1. A. R. McKinlay
  2. D. Fancourt
  3. A. Burton

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Abstract

Objectives

The objective of this study was to examine factors that threatened and protected the wellbeing of older adults living in the UK during social distancing restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

Semi-structured telephone or video interviews with 20 adults aged over 70. Purposive sampling methods were used to increase diversity within the group. Transcripts were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.

Results

Participants described potential threats to their wellbeing during the pandemic, including fears for mortality, grieving normal life, and concerns for the future. Participants also described activities and behaviours that helped to protect their mental health, including adopting a slower pace of life, maintaining routine, socialising, and using past coping skills. Many participants drew on their resilience and life experience to self-manage fear and uncertainty associated with the pandemic, using their time during lockdown to reflect or organise end-of-life affairs.

Discussion

This study provides UK-based evidence that while some older adults experienced challenges during the first wave of COVID-19, many were resilient throughout social distancing restrictions despite early reported concerns of mental health consequences among the older adult population. Our findings highlight the importance of maintaining access to essentials to promote feelings of normality and use of social support to help reduce uncertainty in times of pandemics.

Article activity feed

  1. Version published to 10.1186/s12877-021-02367-8
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.12.15.20248238: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: The UCL Ethics Committee reviewed and approved this study (Project ID: 14895/005).
    Consent: 2.2 Recruitment: Eligibility criteria included: aged 70 years or older, and the ability to speak English sufficiently to understand the study Participant Information Sheet (PIS) and consent form.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variableA team of experienced postgraduate-level qualitative female healthcare researchers (AM, AB, LB, AR, SC) conducted one-to-one interviews between May and September 2020.

    Table 2: Resources

    Experimental Models: Organisms/Strains
    SentencesResources
    A team of experienced postgraduate-level qualitative female healthcare researchers (AM, AB, LB, AR, SC) conducted one-to-one interviews between May and September 2020.
    AB
    suggested: None
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    All transcripts were double checked for anonymity after transcription before importing into Nvivo version 12 for analysis.
    Nvivo
    suggested: (NVivo, RRID:SCR_014802)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    4.1 Strengths and limitations: A strength of this research is that data were collected from participants via purposive recruitment throughout the first UK lockdown and as restrictions began to ease before the second wave. However, findings must be interpreted cautiously. Our participants were generally healthy, with well-established social networks, living in the community, and predominantly without solo caregiving responsibilities. Therefore, their experiences are not likely to be representative of those living with serious health concerns, who may be more likely to have experienced distress during the pandemic [39]. We conducted interviews via video call or telephone, which meant being able to capture experiences safely amid restrictions, but also means that those without access to the internet or telephone would not have had equitable access to participate and may have faced additional challenges. We also did not collect data on, or sample based on previous COVID-19 infection and to our knowledge, none had experienced a confirmed diagnosis. So future studies are needed to ascertain how older adults who experienced COVID-19 were affected psychologically [35]. 4.2 Conclusions: Contrary to early concerns at the start of the pandemic, the mental health of older adults fared well compared with other age groups, and this study adds to the literature on this topic by providing evidence as to why these results may have been found. Overall, many participants described their experie...

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.12.15.20248238v1 on medRxiv