Abstract
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing measures were put into place to flatten the pandemic curve. It was projected that older adults were at increased risk for poor psychological and health outcomes resulting from increased social isolation and loneliness. However, little research has supported this projection among community-dwelling older adults. While a growing body of research has examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on older adults, there is a paucity of qualitative research that captures the lived experience of community-dwelling older adults in Canada. The current study aimed to better understand the lived experience of community-dwelling older adults during the first six months of the pandemic in Ontario, Canada. Semi-structured one-on-one interviews were conducted with independent-living older adults aged 65 years and older. A total of 22 interviews were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Following a recursive process, two overarching themes were identified: perceived threat and challenges of the pandemic, and coping with the pandemic. Specifically, participants reflected on the threat of contracting the virus and challenges associated with living arrangements, social isolation, and financial insecurity. Participants shared their coping strategies to maintain health and wellbeing, including behavioral strategies, emotion-focused strategies, and social support. Overall, this research highlights resilience among older adults during the first six months of the pandemic.
Highlights
Initial reports suggested that older adults were at increased risk of psychological distress stemming from social isolation and loneliness [5], emerging evidence suggests that older adults have displayed greater emotional resilience during this pandemic, relative to younger age groups [5,13]
The present study provides a qualitative perspective of the lived experience of communitydwelling older adults within the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic
The lived experiences shared by older adults in the current study are largely reflective of recent quantitative studies suggesting that older adults have been relatively resilient during this pandemic
Summary
On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) a global pandemic. On 17 March 2020, the Ontario government of Canada declared a provincial state of emergency, which resulted in institutional closures and the implementation of physical distancing measures to reduce the spread of the SARSCoV-2 virus. Additional measures were implemented by the government to help flatten the pandemic curve, encouraging the public to stay at home (i.e., cocooning) and prohibiting social gatherings of more than five people. With a resulting decline in new COVID-19 positive cases, on 27 April 2020, the government released a plan to reopen the province, while maintaining public health measures including mask wearing, hand washing, physical distancing, staying at home unless absolutely necessary, and the creation of small networks of trusted friends or relatives, otherwise known as “social bubbles”
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