Daily Life, Fear of COVID-19 and Social Support in the Older Adults in Home Isolation: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

The COVID-19 (infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus) pandemic caused several changes in the everyday life of the older adults, altering the perception of psychosocial varia-bles. Objetive: To evaluate the daily life, fear of COVID-19, and family support of the older adults at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology: Cross-sectional and exploratory study conducted with older adults people in home social isolation in the municipality of Vitória da Conquista/BA. Data were collected by sociodemographic questionnaire, Fear of COVID-19 scale and Satisfaction with Social Support scale. The STROBE checklist was used to evaluate the study. Results: Of the 101 participants, 68.3% were female and 56.5% in the age group of 60 to 69 years; in relation to daily life before the pandemic 89.1% reported having an active life and 77.2% started to reside with the family during the pandemic. In social support, an overall above aver-age score of 56.04 (9.23) was obtained. Regarding fear, 10.9% reported feeling dizzy or fainting because of the news and 18.8% reported being paralyzed or without reactions when thinking or being exposed to information about the virus. Conclusions: Changes in the daily lives of the older adults were related to feeling less active and being confined to family members. Symp-toms due to fear of COVID-19 and satisfaction with social support were observed to a lesser ex-tent than expected.