COVID-19 Outbreak Restrictions on Daily Activities and Its Psychological Impact on Elderly: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Following the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, restrictions imposed to curb the virus spread may affect the elderly population. Therefore, a scoping review was conducted to map the daily activities restrictions and the psychological impacts on the elderly. Articles from five databases, including Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Science Direct, and Google Scholar were retrieved that used “disease outbreaks” or “infectious disease outbreaks” and “elderly” or “older adult” or “geriatric” or “old age”, which provide relevant insight on the restrictions and psychological impacts on the elderly, published throughout this COVID-19 pandemic until July 2021. Twenty-one eligible articles were included and summarised using thematic analysis. Restrictions throughout the pandemic may, directly and indirectly, impact the elderly’s psychological wellbeing and vary according to their age, gender, previous history of mental illness, comorbidities, and social support. Therefore, the strength of association between each variable should be identified to facilitate healthcare providers in managing the impact of COVID-19 on the elderly population.