Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging, Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Department of Social Welfare, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Gerontologist. 2024 May 1;64(5). doi: 10.1093/geront/gnad122.
Adopting preventive behaviors is crucial to avoiding coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection, and perceived anxiousness may influence such behaviors among older adults and their caregivers. This study investigated the relationships between perceived anxiousness about COVID-19 and preventive behaviors in older adult-caregiver dyads.
A cross-sectional study was conducted using 1,565 older adult-caregiver dyads from the 2020 National Health and Aging Trend Study (NHATS)/National Study of Caregiving (NSOC) COVID-19 Supplements data. Actor-partner interdependence models were estimated to examine the associations between older adults' and family caregivers' perceived anxiousness about COVID-19 and their engagement in personal (e.g., wearing masks, washing hands) and social (e.g., avoiding contact with friends, limiting grocery shopping) preventive behaviors. Separate models were estimated based on older adults' dementia status.
We found significant actor effects of anxiousness about COVID-19 on preventive behaviors of both older adults and caregivers in nondementia dyads. The anxiousness about COVID-19 of older adults had significant partner effects on both personal and social preventive behaviors of caregivers, whereas caregivers' anxiousness about COVID-19 only had a significant partner effect on social preventive behaviors of older adults. No significant partner effect was found in dementia dyads.
Our findings highlight the critical role of caregivers in promoting older adults' health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic and maintaining mental well-being of older adults. The study also implies future efforts to explore the dyadic relationship of dementia care dyads in promoting health behaviors and mental health.
采取预防措施对于避免感染 2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）至关重要，而感知到的焦虑感可能会影响老年人及其照顾者的这些行为。本研究调查了老年成人-照顾者对 COVID-19 的感知焦虑与预防行为之间的关系。
使用来自 2020 年全国健康老龄化趋势研究（NHATS）/全国照顾者研究（NSOC）COVID-19 补充数据的 1565 对老年成人-照顾者对进行了横断面研究。采用演员-伙伴相互依存模型来检验老年人和家庭照顾者对 COVID-19 的感知焦虑与其个人（例如，戴口罩，洗手）和社会（例如，避免与朋友接触，限制杂货店购物）预防行为的关系。根据老年人的痴呆症状况分别估计了单独的模型。
我们发现，在非痴呆对中，对 COVID-19 的焦虑对老年人和照顾者的预防行为均存在显著的演员效应。老年人对 COVID-19 的焦虑对照顾者的个人和社会预防行为均有显著的伙伴效应，而照顾者对 COVID-19 的焦虑仅对老年成人的社会预防行为有显著的伙伴效应。在痴呆对中未发现显著的伙伴效应。
我们的研究结果强调了在 COVID-19 大流行期间，照顾者在促进老年人健康行为和维护老年人心理健康方面的关键作用。该研究还暗示，未来需要探索痴呆护理对促进健康行为和心理健康的双重关系。
