Impact of Stress, Loneliness and Sociodemographic Factors on Psychological Well‐Being During the COVID‐19 Pandemic

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundPersonal and social factors have had a varied effect on older adults during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Psychosocial factors and underlying pathological changes may have influenced the mental health of these older adults. Understanding the drivers behind the mental health of older adults during the pandemic may help identify treatment targets. We aimed to understand this phenomenon by exploring the relationships between the psychosocial factors iand self‐reported experiences of psychological well‐being.MethodWe included 149 participants (mean age: 75.6) from the Harvard Aging Brain Study and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Study who took a survey conducted during the Summer of 2021, to assess stress (Perceived Stress Scale), loneliness (UCLA Loneliness Scale. 3‐item version), resilience (Connor Davidson Resilience Scale) and psychological well‐being (PROMIS‐Global Mental), encompassing self‐reported quality of life, mood and thinking, satisfaction with social relationships and anxiety and depressive symptoms. Pre‐assessed measures of cortical amyloid (PiB; mean time difference = 1.8 years) and medial temporal tau (Flortaucipir; mean time difference = 1.7 years) were also included. We performed a hierarchal regression analysis to understand the relationships among the psychosocial factors, controlling for demographics, amyloid, and tau as predictors of well‐being.ResultDemographic and survey responses are presented in Table 1. Significant negative associations were found among perceived well‐being and pathology (amyloid and tau), stress and loneliness, such that increased pathology, increased stress and increased feelings of loneliness were related to worse mental health (Figure 1). A positive association was found between resilience and well‐being, such that increased resilience was related to higher well‐being. (Figure 1). The hierarchical regression analysis results revealed that loneliness (β = −0.32, t = −5.81, p<.001), stress (β = −0.38, t = −5.48, p<.001), and resilience (β = 0.28, t = 4.34, p<.001) uniquely accounted for a significant proportion of variance in well‐being even after controlling for demographic characteristics (age, sex, education, race) and psychosocial characteristics (marital status, living alone) (Table 2).ConclusionOur findings suggest that measuring and quantifying loneliness, stress, and resilience can help clinicians and researchers understand the potential detrimental effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic among older adults. These findings may extend to other prolonged exposures to stressful situations and uncover much needed targets for intervention.