Mental Health Ramifications of Social Distancing in the Elderly

What effect does social distancing brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic have on perceived loneliness and depressive symptoms of elderly people?

Abstract

There were many unknown factors that arose from the spread of COVID-19 worldwide. Many researchers began to conduct research on questions surrounding this pandemic. One such question is how the COVID-19 pandemic affects people’s mental states. This is, of course, far too broad of a question to properly research, but this study narrows down that question to discover the effect of the pandemic on the elderly’s self-perceived loneliness and depression.

     This question was researched using a survey design that collected quantitative data, which was then interpreted with qualitative statistics to better understand the meaning of the results. This survey was conducted in a nursing home in February of 2021. This nursing home is in Miami and a total of 40 participants were used in the data collection, though two were later omitted due to incomplete responses. In keeping with the common demographic of Miami, many of the participants were Spanish speaking, and the questionnaires and consent forms were translated and offered in both English and Spanish.

     Of the 40 participants that responded, all used the Spanish translation forms. Because of how recent this pandemic is and the length of time it takes for professional researchers to report findings accurately, there are few resources. The data that does exist is from earlier phases in the COVID-19 pandemic, and thus rather indefinite.