In a study from the University of Toronto, scientists found that approximately 1 in 8 older adults developed depression for the first time during the pandemic.
For those who had experienced depression in the past, the numbers were even worse. By the autumn of 2020 almost half (45%) of this group reported being depressed.
While the surge in the prevalence of depression among older adults during the pandemic is well known, few studies prior to this have identified the percentage of people who experienced it for the first time or the percentage of people with a history of the disorder who experienced a relapse.
In the study, the team tested more than 20,000 older adults in Canada and followed them for an average of seven years.
Several factors were associated with depression among older adults during the pandemic, including inadequate income and savings, loneliness, chronic pain, trouble accessing healthcare, a history of adverse childhood experiences, and family conflict.
Older adults who, prior to the pandemic perceived their income to be inadequate for satisfying their basic needs, and those who had fewer savings were more likely to develop depression during the pandemic.
These findings highlight the disproportionate mental health burden borne by individuals with low socioeconomic status during the pandemic.
Many of these socioeconomic risk factors may have been exacerbated by the economic precarity of the pandemic, particularly for individuals with fewer resources.
People who experienced various dimensions of loneliness, such as feeling left out, feeling isolated, and lacking companionship had approximately 4 to 5 times higher risk of both incident and recurrent depression.
Older adults in chronic pain and those who had trouble accessing their usual healthcare, medication or treatments were more likely to be depressed during the autumn of 2020.
This finding underlines the importance of streamlining service provision to ensure less disruption of medical services when future pandemics arise.
Individuals with a childhood history of adversity were more likely to be depressed during the Autumn of 2020.
Older adults who experienced family conflict during the pandemic had more than triple the risk of depression compared to their peers who did not.
The team hopes their findings can help health and social work professionals improve targeted screening and outreach to identify and serve older adults most at risk for depression.
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The study was conducted by Andie MacNeil et al and published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
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