Assessment of the Subjective Wellbeing of the Elderly During the COVID-19 Disease Epidemic in Mashhad

Abstract

Objectives: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)pandemic could be considered as an uncontrollable stressful public health crisis. The ease of transmission of COVID-19 and its potential to kill older adults could affect older adults' Subjective Wellbeing (SWB). This study aimed to assess SWB, and investigate the risk factors associated with declined SWB in the elderly during the COVID -19 outbreak. Methods & Materials: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 400 older adults (age: >60 years) were studied from April 4 to June 20, 2020, in Mashhad City, Iran. In this study, the multistage sampling method was used. In the first stage, 5 healthcare networks were considered as 5 clusters. Next, from each healthcare network, one healthcare center was randomly selected and considered as a cluster. Then, to reach the desired number of samples, 80 subjects were randomly selected per healthcare center and entered into the study. After obtaining permission for entrance to the healthcare centers from the Vice-Chancellor of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, the researcher in charge of research referred to the healthcare centers; after obtaining permission from the center officials, the researcher collected the telephone numbers of the elderly from their records and completed the demographic and main questionnaire used by telephone for all study participants. The questionnaires were completed in June 2020. Each day, 20 elderly were examined; accordingly, except for the 10 days off in June 2020, the questionnaires were completed in the remaining 20 days of the month. The SWB of the elderly was assessed using the Persian version of The 5-item World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5). The obtained data were analyzed in SPSS using descriptive statistics, Chi-squared, and logistic regression tests at the significance level of 0.05. Results: The Mean±SD age of the study participants was 66.7±5.8 years. Of the total research participants, 224(56%) were females and 176(44%) were males. The mean±SD SWB scores in the explored elderly were 44.8±24.7. Furthermore, the SWB score in 285(71.2%) of the study sample was <50, indicating low an SWB. Multivariable logistic regressions were used to identify associations between the SWB and contextual variables. Loneliness (OR=8.28, 95%CI: 4.79-14.31), chronic illness (OR=23.77, 95%CI: 13.42-42.08), isolation (OR=8.03, 95%CI: 3.72-17.30) ,and physical inactivity (OR=7.37, 95%CI: 2.98-18.18) predicted lower SWB in the study subjects. Conclusion: The present research results indicated that the SWB of the examined elderly was undesirable concerning the COVID-19 crisis. Thus, to maintain and improve the SWB of older adults at times of major life events and threats, like the COVID-19 pandemic, the adoption of coping strategies should be considered.