ArticleJournal of the American Geriatrics Society2021
Worries, attitudes, and mental health of older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic: Canadian and U.S. perspectives.
Article in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Prevalence of anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis of over 2 million people.Journal of affective disorders · 2022Pooled it
- Protective and Non-Protective Factors of Mental Health Distress in the United States during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2021Pooled it
- Trial
- A Brief Report on Sex-Specific Differences in Persistent Depression, Anxiety, and Loneliness Among Canadian Veterans During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Military medicine · 2025Article
- Anxiety symptoms and coping strategies used by older adults during COVID-19: A national e-study of linkages among and between them.PLOS mental health · 2025Article
- Mentally healthy living after pandemic social distancing: a study of older Canadians reveals helpful anxiety reduction strategies.Psychogeriatrics : the official journal of the Japanese Psychogeriatric Society · 2024Article
- Resilient Adaptation Strategies: Unveiling Older Adults' Coping Dynamics Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic.Journal of gerontological nursing · 2023Article
- Predictors of persistent depressive and anxiety symptoms among older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2023Article
- Subjective cognitive decline and anxious/depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic: what is the role of stress perception, stress resilience, and β-amyloid?Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2022Article
- Aging in Place During a Pandemic: Neighborhood Engagement and Environments Since the COVID-19 Pandemic Onset.The Gerontologist · 2022Article
- Higher amyloid is associated with greater loneliness among cognitively normal older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.F1000Research · 2022Article
- Worries, attitudes, and mental health of older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic: Canadian and U.S. perspectives.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2021Article
- Older Americans' Perceptions of the Federal Government's Pandemic Response: Voices From the COVID-19 Coping Study.Research on agingArticle
- Predictors of Anxiety, Stress, and Concern of COVID-19 Infection in Older Adults During the First and the Second Waves of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Slovakia.Gerontology & geriatric medicineArticle
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND/
objectivesDifferences in older adults' worry, attitudes, and mental health between high-income countries with diverging pandemic responses are largely unknown. We compared COVID-19 worry, attitudes towards governmental responses, and self-reported mental health symptoms among adults aged ≥55 in the United States and Canada early in the COVID-19 pandemic.
designOnline cross-sectional survey administered between April 2nd and May 31st in the United States and between May 1st and June 30th, 2020 in Canada.
settingNationally in the United States and Canada.
participantsConvenience sample of older adults aged ≥55. MEASUREMENTS: Likert-type scales measured COVID-19 worry and attitudes towards government support. Three standardized scales assessed mental health symptoms: the eight-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, the five-item Beck Anxiety Inventory, and the three-item UCLA loneliness scale.
resultsThere were 4453 U.S. respondents (71.7% women; mean age 67.5) and 1549 Canadian (67.6% women; mean age 69.3). More U.S. respondents (71%) were moderately or extremely worried about the pandemic, compared to 52% in Canada. Just 20% of U.S. respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the federal government cared about older adults in their COVID-19 pandemic response, compared to nearly two-thirds of Canadians (63%). U.S. respondents were more likely to report elevated depressive and anxiety symptoms compared to Canadians; 34.2% (32.8-35.6) versus 25.6% (23.3-27.8) for depressive and 30.8% (29.5-32.2) versus 23.7% (21.6-25.9) for anxiety symptoms. The proportion of United States and Canadian respondents who reported loneliness was similar. A greater proportion of women compared to men reported symptoms of depression and anxiety across all age groups in both countries.
conclusionU.S. older adults felt less supported by their federal government and had elevated depressive and anxiety symptoms compared to older adults in Canada during early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health messaging from governments should be clear, consistent, and incorporate support for mental health.
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