Social isolation due to COVID-19: impact on loneliness, sedentary behavior, and falls in older adults

Abstract

Objectives The World Health Organization has recommended social isolation to prevent the transmission of COVID-19. Thus, feelings of loneliness, sedentary behavior, and predisposition to falls have been reported more often due to the adoption of social isolation, especially for older adults. The objective of this study was to compare older adults’ loneliness, sedentary behavior, and occurrence of falls before and during social isolation due to the pandemic as well as to analyze the association of loneliness with sedentary lifestyle and falls in older adults. Method Retrospective analytical study conducted through an online survey with older adults from Brazilian states in social isolation, approved by the Research Ethics Committee (number 32168920.0.0000.0068). Results There was a significant increase in loneliness and sedentary behavior during social isolation (p-value < 0.05 for both), but no increase was observed for falls (p-value = 0.615). There was no correlation between the outcomes, nor was there a correlation between the outcomes and the number of days in social isolation. Conclusion The results of this research show that adoption of social isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic brought an increase in sedentary behavior and loneliness for older adults but had no effect on the number of falls.