Psychological Distress Among Older Adults During the First Wave of SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe

Objective: To investigate the individual and country-level characteristics associated with the presence and worsening of psychological distress during the first wave of the pandemic among the elderly in Europe.Methods: In June-August 2020, 52,310 non-institutionalized people aged 50+ in 27 SHARE participating countries reported whether feeling depressed, anxious, lonely, and having sleep problems. For this analysis, we combined these symptoms into a count variable reflecting psychological distress. Binary measures of the worsening of each symptom were used as secondary outcomes. Multilevel zero-inflated negative binomial and binary logistic regressions were used to assess the associations.Results: Female sex, low education, multimorbidity, fewer social contacts, and higher stringency of policy measures were associated with increased distress. The worsening of all 4 distress symptoms was associated with younger age, poor health, loss of work due to the pandemic, low social contact, and high national mortality rates from COVID-19.Conclusion: The pandemic exacerbated distress symptoms for socially disadvantaged older adults and those who were already struggling with mental health. The death toll of COVID-19 in a country played a role in symptom worsening.

Automated summary

This study aims to investigate the individual and country-level characteristics associated with the presence and worsening of psychological distress among the elderly in Europe during the first wave of the pandemic. The findings suggest that female sex, low education, multimorbidity, fewer social contacts, and higher stringency of policy measures are associated with increased distress. Additionally, younger age, poor health, loss of work due to the pandemic, low social contact, and high national mortality rates from COVID-19 are associated with the worsening of distress symptoms.