Differential Influence of COVID-19 pandemic on Life-Space Mobility of older adults

ABSTRACT

Life-space mobility (LSM) is critical to aging successfully since it is essential to maintain independence, affecting the health and quality of life of older adults. During the COVID-19 pandemic older adults, who are at high-risk of serious illness and complications, are restricted by stay-at-home orders, limiting their outdoor activities. This study evaluated differences in LSM before and during the pandemic and factors related to limited pre-hospitalization mobility. We used a natural experiment design comparing LSM one month prior to hospitalization and its related factors on two subsamples of hospitalized older adults recruited before and after February 2020 (pandemic outbreak). No significant differences were observed in LSM between pre-pandemic (N=141, M(SD)=54.9(33,5)) and during-pandemic (N=186, M(SD)=55.3(32.9)) samples, even after adjustment for cognitive, functional, and demographic characteristics (F=2.281, p=0.13). Of those who participated during the pandemic, a total of 94 (50.5%) declared that their mobility was strongly affected by the pandemic and had significantly lower LSM (F=4.626, p<0.01) comparing both to those who declared not being affected (N=92) and to the pre-pandemic group, controlling for potential cofounders. In the "during-pandemic" group older adults with higher basic physical functioning, higher economic status, and those with lower levels of education were more likely to indicate that their pre-hospital mobility was affected by the pandemic. These results show that the pandemic period has a differential effect on life-space mobility of older adults. Functional, socio-economic, and educational factors need to be considered in planning how to maintain older adults’ mobility during the ongoing pandemic.