Abstract

Objective

To evaluate the subjective experience of the COVID-19 outbreak in healthy older adults and develop a model of the older population’s psychological adaptation to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

A qualitative grounded theory approach was taken to the study design and analysis, using semi-structured interviews to collect data from 19 community-active Italian older people by telephone during the first wave of COVID-19 (May 2020).

Results

The theory emerging from the study conceptualized the COVID-19 subjective experience in older people as an adjustment process to the disruption of habits, social contacts, and routines that prompted a meaning-making process to face this adverse experience. Three emergent categories included ‘loss, uncertainty, and distress’ as the psychological impact of the pandemic emergency, ‘making sense of COVID-19’ as a subjective sense-making process of the pandemic, and ‘living with the pandemic’ as agency and self-management within the pandemic experience. The resulting narratives encompassed themes, i.e. risk perception, representation of the self, connection with past-time memories, and compliance with safety measures.

Conclusion

The results have implications for designing effective messages to promote hope, social responsibility, and commitment in aging during the COVID-19 pandemic and for health workers who wish to support the psychological health of older adults.

中文翻译：

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意大利老年人对 COVID-19 爆发和封锁的主观体验：一项定性研究

摘要

客观的

评估健康老年人 COVID-19 爆发的主观体验，并开发老年人群对 COVID-19 大流行的心理适应模型。

方法

研究设计和分析采用了定性扎根理论方法，使用半结构化访谈在第一波 COVID-19（2020 年 5 月）期间通过电话从 19 名活跃于社区的意大利老年人那里收集数据。

结果

该研究中出现的理论将老年人的 COVID-19 主观体验概念化为对习惯、社会交往和惯例破坏的调整过程，这些破坏促使意义形成过程面对这种不利体验。三个新兴类别包括“损失、不确定性和痛苦”作为大流行紧急情况的心理影响，“理解 COVID-19”作为大流行的主观理解过程，以及“与大流行共存”作为代理和大流行经验中的自我管理。由此产生的叙述包含主题，即风险感知、自我表现、与过去记忆的联系以及遵守安全措施。

结论

结果对设计有效的信息以促进希望、社会责任和在 COVID-19 大流行期间对老龄化的承诺以及对希望支持老年人心理健康的卫生工作者具有影响。