Depressive Symptoms and Coping Strategies in Community-Dwelling Older People Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Mixed-Method Study

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to examine depressive symptoms of community-dwelling older people amidst COVID-19 and explore how naturally occurring coping strategies were associated with depression. A mixed-method cross-sectional telephone survey was conducted with 375 older people aged 60 years and above between March and May 2020 in Hong Kong. Trained social workers interviewed participants and assessed depressive symptoms with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Attribute coding and thematic analysis were adopted for qualitative data analyses. Generalized linear models (GLM) were used to examine the effects of demographics, self-reported risk factors and coping strategies on PHQ-9 scores. Participants’ average PHQ-9 score was 1.9 (SD = 2.9), suggesting a low risk for depression in general. Over half of the participants reported adaptive coping strategies, including learning new things, staying physically, mentally, and socially active, and having a positive mind-set. GLM results indicated that living with family members (other than spouse) and/or others, maladaptive coping, and self-reported risk factors were significantly associated with higher PHQ-9 scores, while adaptive coping was significantly associated with lower PHQ-9 scores. Our study contributed to the growing literature on older people’s resilience and adaptive coping during the pandemic, and the results may have implications for mental health promotion and community care.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• depressive symptoms
• coping
• mental health
• older Chinese

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank social workers for their help in recruiting participants and collecting data, thank research assistants for checking and managing data and thank all the participants for their contribution to this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

No additional unpublished data to share.

Statement of ethical approval

Protocol for this research has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) of The University of Hong Kong, within which the work was undertaken and conformed to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants in this study have given informed consent (verbal), and all personal identifiers are removed to preserve the anonymity of the participants.

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Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.