Social Contact Prior to COVID-19 and Longitudinal Mental Health Trajectories During COVID-19 Among Adults Ages ≥55
Innovation in Aging
; 5(Supplement_1):317-317, 2021.
Article
in English
| PMC | ID: covidwho-1584638
ABSTRACT
Social support protects mental health during a crisis. We examined whether prior contact with social organizations and friends/neighbors was associated with better trajectories of loneliness, depression and self-rated memory during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted latent class analysis and regression analysis on longitudinal data from the COVID-19 Coping Study of US adults aged ≥55 from April-October 2020 (n=3105). Overall, prior contact with friends(B=-.075,p<.001), neighbors(B=-.048,p=.007), and social organizations(B=-.073,p<.001) predicted better mental health amid COVID-19. Three classes were identified Class1 had the best outcomes, whereas Class3 had the worst outcomes and were most likely to live alone(B=.149,p<.001). For Class1, prior contact with social organizations(B=-.052,p=.044) predicted decreasing loneliness. For Class2, prior contact with friends(B=-.075,p<.001) predicted decreasing loneliness and better memory(B=-.130,p=.011). Conversely, prior contact with neighbors(B=-.165,p=.010) predicted worsening loneliness among Class3. Our findings pose new questions on the role of neighborhood networks to mitigate poor mental health outcomes among older adults during a crisis.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
Databases of international organizations
Database:
PMC
Type of study:
Prognostic study
Language:
English
Journal:
Innovation in Aging
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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