Department of Neuroscience, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
AGE-WELL NCE, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Front Public Health. 2021 Oct 28;9:749515. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.749515. eCollection 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic presents an unprecedented situation in which physical distancing and "stay at home" orders have increased the pressures for social isolation. Critically, certain demographic factors have been linked to increased feelings of isolation and loneliness. These at-risk groups for social isolation may be disproportionately affected by the changes and restrictions that have been implemented to prevent viral spread. In our analysis, we sought to evaluate if perceived feelings of social isolation, during the COVID-19 pandemic, was related to demographic and technology-related psychographic characteristics. Older adults across Canada were surveyed about their demographic background, their feelings concerning confidence and proficiency in technology use, and how frequently they have felt isolated during the pandemic. In total 927 responses from Canadians over 65 years old, of varying demographic characteristics were collected. Our data shows that many older adults are feeling isolated "Often" or "Some of the time" in 2020, regardless of most demographic factors that have been previously associated with increased isolation risk. However, feelings of proficiency in using technology was an important factor affecting feelings of isolation. Given that technology proficiency is a modifiable factor, and remained significant after adjustment for demographic factors, future efforts to reduce social isolation should consider training programs for older adults to improve technology confidence, especially in an increasingly digital world.
新冠疫情大流行带来了前所未有的局面，身体上的距离和“居家”令增加了社会隔离的压力。至关重要的是，某些人口统计学因素与孤独感和孤立感的增加有关。这些面临社交隔离风险的群体可能会受到为防止病毒传播而实施的变化和限制的不成比例的影响。在我们的分析中，我们试图评估在新冠疫情期间，对社会隔离的感知是否与人口统计学和与技术相关的心理特征有关。加拿大各地的老年人接受了关于他们的人口统计学背景、他们对技术使用的信心和熟练程度的感受，以及他们在疫情期间感到孤立的频率的调查。共收集了 927 名 65 岁以上加拿大老年人的回复，他们具有不同的人口统计学特征。我们的数据表明，许多老年人在 2020 年经常或有时感到孤立，尽管大多数以前与增加隔离风险有关的人口统计学因素都存在。然而，使用技术的熟练程度是影响隔离感的一个重要因素。鉴于技术熟练程度是一个可改变的因素，并且在调整人口统计学因素后仍然显著，未来减少社会隔离的努力应考虑为老年人提供技术培训计划，以提高技术信心，特别是在日益数字化的世界中。
