The social roles and its related factors of community-dwelling older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

This study focused on the social roles of community-dwelling older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic and aimed to clarify their actual conditions and related factors. We compared the values of four social roles of the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology and various survey items in 127 elderly subjects aged 65 years or older. The group who talked to young people tended to eat alone more (p = 0.00), to be more depressed (p = 0.00), and had lower food intake diversity scores (p = 0.04) than the group who didn't talk to young people. No significant associations were found between the three social roles and the values of the various survey items, except for 'Do you talk to young people yourself?'. Logistic regression analysis showed that the no involvement group was significantly associated with loners (odds ratio = 4.28, 95% confidence interval = 1.69-10.83, p = 0.00) and depression-prone individuals (odds ratio = 3.73, 95% confidence interval = 1.02-6.96, p = 0.01). Future cross-sectional studies should investigate the relationship between older adults' health and the presence or absence of involvement with young people, taking into consideration the evolution of the situation during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.