COVID-19, AGEISM, CONNECTEDNESS

BY Saashya Rodrigo

COVID-19 has forever transformed how we go about our day-to-day lives. For many, the initial sudden shift to a contactless virtual platform, dowsed in unfamiliar precautionary measures, has been challenging. Given the longer than anticipated experience with pandemic life, we have been forced to accept this as a ‘temporary norm.’

There’s been an urgent necessity to adapt to pandemic life as much as possible in an effort to find and maintain normalcy amid these trying times. In some cases, the outcome of this journey has proven to be far more practical and efficient than it was pre-pandemic. But for many, the experience has been quite the opposite, particularly for the elderly.

Not only is the older generation finding it more difficult to adapt suddenly to a tech heavy socially distanced lifestyle, they experience greater levels of anxiety and stress given their susceptibility to contracting the virus.

Life as they know it has come to a standstill while many in the younger generation struggle in their own ways but experience a comparatively seamless transition to an all virtual way of life.

The Agewell Foundation, a nonprofit NGO based in New Delhi, conducted a study on the lockdown’s impact on elderly people in India. The study utilised phone survey data from 5,000 individuals of whom a little over half were elders who lived with younger family members while the remainder lived with their spouse or alone.

This study found that more than 50 percent of respondents reported that their relationships with their family were deteriorating as a result of interpersonal conflicts or a complete lack of communication. They also claimed that they were experiencing greater levels of mistreatment, neglect and abuse since lockdown.

Respondents felt that technology and financial dependence were the primary issues contributing to the deterioration of family relationships.

While the adjustment to lockdowns is an ongoing uphill journey in many parts of the world irrespective of age, it’s clear that those who are medically most vulnerable are also more prone to experiencing related social and emotional hardships.


However, these struggles impact individuals beyond the psychological domain.

In a research article published in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, Dr. Debanjan Banerjee states that lockdown related experiences of emotional challenges are turning out to be a major public health concern, given the elderly population’s biopsychosocial vulnerabilities to the virus.

While mask wearing and social isolation are two of the most recommended preventative strategies, such changes in addition to other interpersonal struggles are a major cause of loneliness among the elderly population.

In an analysis of COVID-19’s impact on older adults’ levels of anxiety and depression, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) – a US-based nonprofit organisation that aims to provide nonpartisan factual information to the public about national health issues – found that adults who are 65 and older reported greater levels of anxiety and depression amid the pandemic.

Additionally – individuals with low income and those who live alone, as well as people with poor self-reported health, were more likely to report experiences of anxiety and depression.

What makes the psychological impacts of lockdown even more concerning is the way in which it has shaped how society views older people in light of the global pandemic. Ageism has become an unfortunate byproduct of COVID-19. The stigmatisation of an already medically vulnerable population is spreading rapidly.

A study that analysed the prevalence of ageist content on Twitter, specifically relating to COVID-19 and older individuals, identified tweets that contained keywords such as ‘elderly,’ ‘older’ and/or ‘boomer’ plus the hashtags ‘#COVID19’ and/or ‘#coronavirus.’ Of the identified tweets, 21.9 percent contained content intended to ridicule or offend while 21.1 percent devalued older adults specifically through the lens of COVID-19.

The ways in which the pandemic is impacting the older versus younger generations can’t be compared. Our response to how we as a society respond to this crisis not only becomes a reflection of how we take care of the elders in our community, it also sets an example for youth and how they might take care of the generation that birthed them.

On a more proximal level, how we address the emotional impacts of lockdowns can be very telling of our understanding or misunderstanding of the biopsychosocial vulnerabilities of older individuals, and the effect it can have on their susceptibility to the virus and other health crises.

And on a more distal level, our response to the older generation reveals our emotional connection to each other as a species – and thereby shapes how generations to come will care for each other.