ABSTRACT
Background The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted older people. The disease and the measures to combat it have had a differential impact according to gender, with higher mortality rates in men and worse psychological and social consequences in women. The objective of this work is to analyze the changes in perceived health of older people in Europe during the first months of the pandemic and to assess the combined role of age and gender. Methods Wave 8 data of SHARE-corona (Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe) (n = 51,695, aged≥50) collected between Jun-Aug 2020 were used. Perceived health status was explored with a question on whether there has been a change compared with the health status before the COVID-19 outbreak (response options: worse, the same and better). Two-way ANOVA with interaction and Student's t-test with Bonferroni correction were used to compare the effects of gender and age group (50-59 years, 60-69 years, 70-79 years, and ≥80) in changes in perceived health. Results Differences in perceived health were observed by age, as well as by gender in participants aged ≥70 years (F = 91.94;p < 0.001). These differences were significant both by gender (F = 19.39;p < 0.001) and age (F = 191.79;p < 0.001). No interaction was detected between both factors (p = 0.170), which allowed their effect to be studied individually. Among the people who reported a worsening in their perceived health, women aged 70 to 79 years predominated (11.1%), followed by men aged 80 and over (15.3%) and women of the same age group (16.4%). Conclusions The results suggest an association between the change in perceived health during the pandemic and age. Women have a slightly worse health status than men in all age groups. Therefore, gender can be considered as an influential factor in perceived health in old age, which in turn can have a potential impact in the quality of life of older people. Funding Projects Ref. H2019/HUM-5698 and Ref. 202010E158. Key messages Older people have been severely impacted by COVID-19 pandemic. The combined effect of age and gender on the change in perceived health status during the pandemic have been analyzed.
ABSTRACT
The violence - without the apparent “Gender Peace”, if data and households are examined - occurs against adult and older women, is beginning to become apparent, but there is only information from recent years. The objective is demonstrate that social isolation can be a key factor in gender peace in the case of adult and older women, even more so in the case of disability or dependency situation. This work focuses on what we call older women gender peace based on qualitative techniques. Moreover, women in this vital stage continue to be vulnerable, defenseless, have more fear and risk, despite their plausible gender peace – expression that we contribute - which connects with the current post-health crisis scenario, armed violence and wars. This chapter also contributes to the consideration of technologies addressed to adults and older women to increase gender peace. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to know the psychosocial impact and social behaviours and related to the perception of technological needs in adults and older persons with diseases, health problems and/or sensory or motor disabilities. This work delves into this reality from a gender, inclusive and, at the same time, technological, biotechnological and/or virtual device approach. This goal includes two secondary objectives: 1) To know the health conditions that affect the adult and older people, whether they suffer from chronic diseases and health problems. In this way, it will be possible to understand if there are specific conditions in which the adult and older persons have felt especially sensitive during the pandemic outbreak in Spain. 2) To understand the needs of older people with sensory or motor disabilities before the pandemic and how this connects with the looking forward to an activity after COVID-19. One conclusion is that new emerging technologies are essential in aspects such as safety, hygiene and other social factors that help to improve autonomy and independence - such as canes and support devices in functional disability type EGARA - of older persons during and after the pandemic times. In addition to the needs of adults and the older persons prior to the pandemic, especially in older women, there are others that require research from a more inclusive and gender perspective. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.