Mental health worsened in UK older adults as COVID-19 pandemic continued

Mental health worsened overall in older adults in the U.K. as the COVID-19 pandemic progressed, affecting women and those without partners to a greater extent, according to a longitudinal cohort study published in JAMA Psychiatry.

“Older adults are at increased risk of serious illness and death following COVID-19 infection and are vulnerable to social isolation and loss of access to social and health care. These experiences may lead to poor mental health and well-being that are in turn associated with cognitive decline, incident dementia, mortality and several physical health conditions,” Paola Zaninotto, PhD, of the department of epidemiology and public health at University College London, and colleagues wrote.

Zaninotto and colleagues sought to examine fluctuations in mental health before and during the initial and later phases of the COVID-19 pandemic and test whether social or demographic traits in a sample of older adults residing in England could predict or reveal what kind of changes resulted from the continuation of the pandemic.

The researchers analyzed data from 5,146 older adults (52.9% female, 92.8% white, mean age 67.7) participating in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing who provided information prior to the pandemic in both 2018 and 2019, then again at two separate intervals in 2020 (June or July; November or December). Factors considered for significance were sex, age, partnership status and socioeconomic position.

Changes in mental health status were tracked using a fixed-effects regression model for depression, anxiety, quality of life and loneliness, each of which were scored according to a different scale developed for each individual symptom.

Results showed significant symptoms of depression among study enrollees swelled from 12.5% before the pandemic to 22.6% by mid-2020, with another accompanying spike to 28.5% in the year’s final 2 months. The rise in symptoms occurred alongside increased instances of loneliness as well as deterioration in quality of life.

The sharpest declines in mental health status were observed in both women and those who did not have partners. Less wealthy participants had the lowest levels of mental health both before and during the pandemic, while those of a higher socioeconomic group had better overall mental health prior to the pandemic but displayed more negative changes as the pandemic continued.

This finding underscores the need to improve screening for mental health problems and access to psychological support for older people, Zaninotto and colleagues wrote.

“Policies should be in place for the immediate provision of targeted interventions to support the mental and physical health of older people, in particular women, nonpartnered people and those from low socioeconomic groups,” they added.