Gender differences in coping with long-term COVID-19 impacts among older adults

Abstract

Initial COVID-19 pandemic research suggests that during the first few weeks of the pandemic women were disproportionately impacted by restrictions compared to men. This study explored whether these gender differences in coping with pandemic restrictions were present among older adults 8–9 months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Data are based on online survey responses (n = 781) from respondents aged 60 and older. The survey was fielded from November 2 to December 4, 2020. Compared to older men, a greater proportion of older women self-reported an increase in being lonely, anxious, scared, sad, stressed, hopeless, and frustrated as compared to the beginning of the pandemic. More women reported engaging in healthy coping behaviors compared to men and self-reported more decreases in sleeping and in eating compared to the first few weeks of the pandemic. A greater proportion of older women reported a decline in physical activity since the first few weeks of the pandemic compared to older men. Self-reported changes in communication did not differ by gender, except for text messaging. More women compared to men reported that their use of text messaging increased since the initial stages of the pandemic. Results showed significant gender differences among older adults in coping with long-term COVID-19 restrictions 8–9 months into the pandemic.

Keywords:

• Coping behavior
• gender
• older adults
• pandemic

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). UGA IRB protocol/human subjects approval number: PROJECT00002133.