Coping With COVID-19: It Takes More Than Medicine

Next Avenue reports that a study by the University of California, San Francisco's Ashwin Kotwal in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society considered the effects of COVID-19 on seniors, which are likely to be compounded during the holiday season. Biweekly interviews with a cross-section of 151 older men and women in the San Francisco Bay Area uncovered loneliness and social isolation, with more than half of respondents attributing "worsened feelings of loneliness" directly to the pandemic. A key factor in this isolation is lack of comfort or familiarity with Internet and technology-based engagement, and nearly half of respondents reported no "video-based socializing." One in four said they lacked even the most basic Internet-based connections, such as e-mail. Yet Kotwal is encouraged by the finding that some older people have found ways to cope, and some of the feelings of isolation have diminished over time with activities like book clubs and dance classes online. "In some cases, concerned loved ones started checking in more often by phone, too."