Intergenerational inequalities in COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 as a disease mainly affects older people. However, the measures that governments have introduced to prevent the spread of the pandemic will mainly impact on the younger ones. The key challenges for countries are to respond to both: (1) reducing the spread of the pandemic and (2) managing its syndemic, psycho-social dimension. Governments should design cross-cutting measures to address both these dimensions, be sensitive to and targeting different groups to enable, on one hand, a new normal life with the virus for individuals, and on the other hand, to enable society to function normally. For that aim, countries have to establish effective monitoring and measuring of the situation in order to ensure appropriate, effective and targeted responses. PANDA is an example of a good practice in Slovenia. The PANDA findings indicate that there are differences between generations in perceptions of the pandemic, in vaccine acceptance and in pandemic experiences. Mental health for example is one of the most affected components of health status in individuals, with worse results for younger generations. For the age group 65 - 74 years, 9 % are reporting depression symptoms and 13.5% reporting problems in mental health, while for the 18 - 29 years group, 17.8% are reporting depression symptoms and 28.5% mental health problems. Even more serious are the differences we could observe in assessing the financial situation, with 34.4% of the surveyed participants aged 18-29 years assessing their financial situation as worse in the last three months, compared to only 9.9% of those in the age group 65-74. Observed intergenerational inequalities are bringing along the responsibility of the older members of the population to get vaccinated, not only to protect themselves and prevent the collapse of the health system, but also to enable younger generations to get their lives back to normal and allow them to live and eat, attend education and socialise normally.