A Precautionary Tale: Individual Decision Making in the Time of COVID-19

Precaution taking is an important part of managing COVID-19 and has been since the start of the pandemic. Guided by the Health Belief Model, two studies conducted during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic aimed to identify possible individual difference predictors of precautionary actions. Study 1 was an online, cross-sectional study using 763 adults aged 20–79 years old. Study 2, a 30-day daily diary study, examined daily precautions in 261 persons over the age of 55 years old. Study 1 and Study 2 indicated that COVID-19 knowledge predicted precautionary behaviors. Multilevel models from Study 2 indicated that daily increases in in-person interactions and leaving home were associated with decreases in precautions, but increases in disruption to routine were associated with increases in precautions. In both studies, including concurrent and lagged models in Study 2, significant interactions between information seeking and perceived risk suggested higher information seeking was related to higher precautions for those who consider themselves low risk. Findings highlight the burden of daily precautions and potentially modifiable factors of engagement in precautions.

A Precautionary Tale: Individual Decision Making in the Time of COVID-19.

Precaution taking is an important part of managing COVID-19 and has been since the start of the pandemic. Guided by the Health Belief Model, two studies conducted during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic aimed to identify possible individual difference predictors of precautionary actions. Study 1 was an online, cross-sectional study using 763 adults aged 20-79 years old. Study 2, a 30-day daily diary study, examined daily precautions in 261 persons over the age of 55 years old. Study 1 and Study 2 indicated that COVID-19 knowledge predicted precautionary behaviors. Multilevel models from Study 2 indicated that daily increases in in-person interactions and leaving home were associated with decreases in precautions, but increases in disruption to routine were associated with increases in precautions. In both studies, including concurrent and lagged models in Study 2, significant interactions between information seeking and perceived risk suggested higher information seeking was related to higher precautions for those who consider themselves low risk. Findings highlight the burden of daily precautions and potentially modifiable factors of engagement in precautions.

Erratum to: AAA Research Methodology I: Overcoming Linguistic and Cultural Barriers in Aging Research Among Asians: Presenter Discussion.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1093/geroni/igaa057.3519.].

Information Seeking During the Pandemic: The Role of Age, Agency, and Fake News Concerns

COVID-19 brought rapid changes to the way in which people understand and process news, including both information and misinformation about the pandemic. This cross-sectional study was designed to examine persons’ experiences during the earliest months of the pandemic. The sample included 871 adults ages 20-79 (M=38.27 years, SD=11.40). Online surveys were collected between March and May, 2020 using Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants completed a series of questionnaires, including a measure of agency from the Midlife Development Inventory, a questionnaire that assessed level of skepticism about the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e. fake news beliefs), a depression scale, a question about their level of anxiety about developing COVID-19, and questions about the frequency in which they sought information about the pandemic from different sources (e.g., TV, social media). A multiple regression using information seeking frequency as the outcome variable revealed several significant relationships. Specifically, younger adults, people with higher agency, and people with higher fake news beliefs all reported higher levels of COVID-19-related information seeking. In addition, there was a significant 3-way interaction between age, agency, and fake news beliefs. Disentangling this interaction revealed that older adults with low agency were least likely to engage in information seeking. There were, however, no age differences in information seeking in participants with high agency and fake news beliefs, but large age differences in participants with low agency but high fake news beliefs. Findings suggest agency is an important predictor of information seeking behavior, particularly for older adults with high levels of skepticism about the pandemic.

Experiencing and Forecasting COVID-19 Daily Stress on Mental Health Reactivity Across Age and Race.

OBJECTIVES: This study systematically evaluates age and race differences in mental health symptoms as they unfold microlongitudinally during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with a focus on within-person reactivity to forecasting and experiencing COVID-19 stress. METHOD: A daily diary approach was used to examine predictors of daily anxiety and depressive symptoms among 526 adults (White [54%] and Black American [46%]) aged 21-79. A total of 3,605 online diaries were collected for 21 consecutive days between October and November, 2020. In addition to mental health symptoms, participants reported forecasted (next 24 h) stress as well as experienced (past 24 h) stress related to COVID-19. RESULTS: Patterns of reactivity to forecasted and experienced COVID-19 stress depended on age and race. White older adults displayed greater reactivity to COVID-19-related stress than White younger adults, but the effects of COVID-19-related stress were consistently detrimental for the daily anxiety of Black Americans, regardless of age. For Black Americans, age was less negatively associated with depressive symptoms than for White Americans. Increases in experienced COVID-19 stress were also more strongly associated with increases in depressive symptoms for Black Americans relative to White participants. DISCUSSION: This study moves beyond cross-sectional, descriptive work within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and emphasizes the dynamic nature of within-person reactivity patterns that differ by age and race. Although White older adults experienced an increase in daily anxiety when forecasting COVID-19 stress, the co-occurring pandemic of systemic racism may be more powerful than age-related vulnerabilities for Black adults.

Age Differences in Risk and Resilience Factors in COVID-19-Related Stress.

OBJECTIVES: Older adults are at higher risk for death and infirmity from COVID-19 than younger and middle-aged adults. The current study examines COVID-19-specific anxiety and proactive coping as potential risk and resilience factors that may be differentially important for younger and older adults in understanding stress experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Five hundred and fifteen adults aged 20-79 years in the United States reported on their anxiety about developing COVID-19, proactive coping, and stress related to COVID-19 in an online survey. RESULTS: Although there were no age differences in stress levels, anxiety about developing COVID-19 was associated with more COVID-19 stress for older adults relative to younger adults, but proactive coping was associated with less COVID-19 stress for older adults relative to younger adults. DISCUSSION: Our results suggest that anxiety might function as a risk factor, whereas proactive coping may function as a resilience factor for older adults' COVID-19 stress. We encourage future context-dependent investigations into mental health among older adults during this pandemic and beyond.

AAA Research Methodology I: Overcoming Linguistic and Cultural Barriers in Aging Research Among Asians: Presenter Discussion

Slowing the spread of COVID-19 depends on public adherence to precautionary actions, such as wearing masks. The Health Belief Model (Rosenstock, 1974) suggests the likelihood of using precautionary measures depends on perceived susceptibility, the severity of a disease, and whether effective measures can be taken to reduce the perceived threat of a disease. This daily diary study focused on identifying predictors of daily precautionary behavior in older persons. Between April 1 and June 26, 2020, 261 adults ages 55-79 (M = 64.29, SD = 5.20) completed up to 30 consecutive days of online diaries. We examined whether perceived risk, COVID-19 knowledge, fake news beliefs, information seeking, disruption to routine, in-person interactions, and leaving the house predicted the number of daily precautions participants engaged in. Multilevel modeling was used to examine within-person fluctuations in precautions as well as change in precautions from one day to the next. People who reported higher education, scored higher on the COVID-19 knowledge quiz, had lower fake news beliefs, and perceived a higher risk of contracting COVID-19 endorsed more precautions. At the daily level, increases in the number of in-person interactions, leaving home, and disruption to daily routine were each associated with decreases in precautionary behaviors. Concurrent day and lagged models showed significant interactions between information seeking and perceived risk, suggesting increases in information seeking are related to increases in precautions for those who consider their risk to be low. Findings highlight potentially intervenable factors that influence older adults’ daily decision making related to precautionary actions.

Mental Health Challenges of United States Healthcare Professionals During COVID-19.

As COVID-19 continues to impact global society, healthcare professionals (HCPs) are at risk for a number of negative well-being outcomes due to their role as care providers. The objective of this study was to better understand the current psychological impact of COVID-19 on HCPs in the United States This study used an online survey tool to collect demographic data and measures of well-being of adults age 18 and older living in the United States between March 20, 2020 and May 14, 2020. Measures included anxiety and stress related to COVID-19, depressive symptoms, current general anxiety, health questions, tiredness, control beliefs, proactive coping, and past and future appraisals of COVID-related stress. The sample included 90 HCPs and 90 age-matched controls (M age = 34.72 years, SD = 9.84, range = 23 - 67) from 35 states of the United States. A multivariate analysis of variance was performed, using education as a covariate, to identify group differences in the mental and physical health measures. HCPs reported higher levels of depressive symptoms, past and future appraisal of COVID-related stress, concern about their health, tiredness, current general anxiety, and constraint, in addition to lower levels of proactive coping compared to those who were not HCPs (p < 0.001, η2 = 0.28). Within the context of this pandemic, HCPs were at increased risk for a number of negative well-being outcomes. Potential targets, such as adaptive coping training, for intervention are discussed.