Page 105 - Petelin, Ana, ur. 2021. Zdravje starostnikov / Health of the Elderly. Zbornik povzetkov z recenzijo / Book of Abstracts. Koper: Založba Univerze na Primorskem/University of Primorska Press
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tal health of the elderly during the COVID-19 pandemic psihologija / sociala in zdravje starejših odraslih | psychology / social and health of the elderly
Helena Jeriček Klanšček, Ada Hočevar Grom, Maja Klančič,
Maruša Rehberger, Darja Lavtar
National insitute of Public Health, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Introduction. The COVID-19 pandemic greatly affects the lives of everyone, in-
cluding the elderly. In addition, feelings of security and predictability are re-
duced during a pandemic, and fears, insecurity, anxiety, and pressures are
heightened. The purpose of the study was to investigate the characteristics of
mental well-being and the risk of developing depression in the elderly during
the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods. Data from eight waves of the Slovenian panel web survey SI-PANDA
was used, namely the 1st wave: from 4th to 6th December 2020 (n = 1001); 2nd
wave: from 18th to 21st December 2020 (n = 1001); 3rd wave: from 4th to 5th
January 2021 (n = 1002); 4th wave: from 15th to 17th January 2021 (n = 1001);
5th wave: from 29th to 30th January 2021 (n = 1003); 6th wave: from 12th to
15th February (n = 1003); 7th wave: from 26th February to 1st March 2021 (n
= 1000); 8th wave: from 12th to 15th March 2021 (n = 1002). The sample in-
cluded adults aged 18 to 74 years. In all eight waves, we used The World Health
Organisation-Five Well Being Index (WHO 5), which is a short self-reported
scale of current mental well-being and also has appropriate validity for screen-
ing for depression. In the analysis, we used the average measure for well-being
and formed three groups according to the risk of mental health problems: the
group with an increased risk of depression, the group with an increased risk of
mental health problems, and the group without mental health problems. Data
were analyzed using the SPSS 25, we applied the Mantel Haenszel linear trend
test and the chi square test.
Results. The results show that from the 1sr to the 8th wave of the study (from
December 4th 2020 to March 15th 2021), mental well being in the whole sam-
ple improved slightly (M H test for trend, p < 0,001), both in men and women,
across all age groups. In addition, there is a declining trend in the risk of devel-
oping depression among the population aged between 30 and 64 years. How-
ever, this decrease was not observed in the 65–74 age group, which indicates
that the risk of depressive disorder from wave 1 to 8 did not change significant-
ly in this age group.
Discussion and conclusions. Mental health and mental health problems are af-
fected by a variety of factors that are likely to vary between age groups as
well. Foreign research suggests that the incidence of mental health problems
and disorders increased during the pandemic, while the findings on changes in
mental well being are less uniform – in some settings, changes were not de-
tected before and during the pandemic. The first wave of our research was al-
ready conducted during the pandemic, so comparisons with the pre pandemic
situation are not possible. Additional research would be needed on individual
age groups, including the elderly, to clarify the factors for mental disorders and
mental well being during a pandemic.
Keywords: mental well being, mental disorders, the elderly, WHO-5
103
Helena Jeriček Klanšček, Ada Hočevar Grom, Maja Klančič,
Maruša Rehberger, Darja Lavtar
National insitute of Public Health, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Introduction. The COVID-19 pandemic greatly affects the lives of everyone, in-
cluding the elderly. In addition, feelings of security and predictability are re-
duced during a pandemic, and fears, insecurity, anxiety, and pressures are
heightened. The purpose of the study was to investigate the characteristics of
mental well-being and the risk of developing depression in the elderly during
the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods. Data from eight waves of the Slovenian panel web survey SI-PANDA
was used, namely the 1st wave: from 4th to 6th December 2020 (n = 1001); 2nd
wave: from 18th to 21st December 2020 (n = 1001); 3rd wave: from 4th to 5th
January 2021 (n = 1002); 4th wave: from 15th to 17th January 2021 (n = 1001);
5th wave: from 29th to 30th January 2021 (n = 1003); 6th wave: from 12th to
15th February (n = 1003); 7th wave: from 26th February to 1st March 2021 (n
= 1000); 8th wave: from 12th to 15th March 2021 (n = 1002). The sample in-
cluded adults aged 18 to 74 years. In all eight waves, we used The World Health
Organisation-Five Well Being Index (WHO 5), which is a short self-reported
scale of current mental well-being and also has appropriate validity for screen-
ing for depression. In the analysis, we used the average measure for well-being
and formed three groups according to the risk of mental health problems: the
group with an increased risk of depression, the group with an increased risk of
mental health problems, and the group without mental health problems. Data
were analyzed using the SPSS 25, we applied the Mantel Haenszel linear trend
test and the chi square test.
Results. The results show that from the 1sr to the 8th wave of the study (from
December 4th 2020 to March 15th 2021), mental well being in the whole sam-
ple improved slightly (M H test for trend, p < 0,001), both in men and women,
across all age groups. In addition, there is a declining trend in the risk of devel-
oping depression among the population aged between 30 and 64 years. How-
ever, this decrease was not observed in the 65–74 age group, which indicates
that the risk of depressive disorder from wave 1 to 8 did not change significant-
ly in this age group.
Discussion and conclusions. Mental health and mental health problems are af-
fected by a variety of factors that are likely to vary between age groups as
well. Foreign research suggests that the incidence of mental health problems
and disorders increased during the pandemic, while the findings on changes in
mental well being are less uniform – in some settings, changes were not de-
tected before and during the pandemic. The first wave of our research was al-
ready conducted during the pandemic, so comparisons with the pre pandemic
situation are not possible. Additional research would be needed on individual
age groups, including the elderly, to clarify the factors for mental disorders and
mental well being during a pandemic.
Keywords: mental well being, mental disorders, the elderly, WHO-5
103
