Directional Effects of Social Isolation and Quality of Life on Anxiety Levels Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults During a COVID-19 Lockdown
Open accessAbstract
Objective The COVID-19 lockdown could see older adults facing increased anxiety levels due to social isolation. Additionally, the lockdown could be more difficult for those with lower Quality of Life (QoL). We aim to understand predictive factors of older adult's anxiety symptoms during the lockdown as it is a main psychological concern of COVID-19.Methods Four hundred eleven participants (M age = 68.95, S.D. = 5.60) completed questionnaires at two time points - before the pandemic and during the lockdown period. Cross-lagged analysis was carried out on two structural equation models - social isolation and anxiety symptoms, and QoL and anxiety symptoms.Results Baseline social isolation was associated with more anxiety symptoms at follow-up. However, baseline anxiety symptoms were not associated with social isolation subsequently. For QoL and anxiety symptoms, the relationship was bidirectional.Conclusion Older adults who were previously socially isolated and had a lower QoL are particularly vulnerable to the negative psychological impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown.
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Higher pre-COVID quality of life acts as a protective factor against anxiety during the pandemic in non-clinical populations.
“Interestingly, higher levels of pre-COVID QOL acted as a protective factor against anxiety during the pandemic in non-clinical populations [92–94].”
From Correlates of Quality of Life in Anxiety Disorders: Review of Recent Research (2021) · cites this paper as [94]
The Results (‘Anxiety and quality of life’; page unavailable) associate higher pre-pandemic QoL with lower anxiety at follow-up in a mainly healthy, community-dwelling cohort of older adults. The Discussion (page unavailable) says higher QoL could indicate protective factors, but does not establish that QoL itself acted as a protective factor or extend the finding to non-clinical populations generally. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- Siew, S. K. H., Mahendran, R., & Yu, J.
- Affiliations
- National University of Singapore (SG)
- Corresponding author
- Siew, Savannah Kiah Hui
- Venue
- The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-12
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1274-1279
- ISSN
- 1064-7481 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8594953
- OpenAlex
- W3153127415
- Cited by
- 26
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3
- FWCI
- 3.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National University of Singapore
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Aging, Health, and Disability
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- social isolation, quality of life, anxiety symptoms, older adults, COVID-19 lockdown, community-dwelling older adults, bidirectional relationship, psychological vulnerability
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Aged, Anxiety, Communicable Disease Control, Depression, Humans, Quality of Life, Social Isolation, Independent Living
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