Drost Madeleine, Loibl Cäzilia, Snyder Anastasia, Betz Michael
The John Glenn College of Public Affairs, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America.
Department of Human Sciences, College of Education and Human Ecology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2025 Jan 9;20(1):e0314042. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0314042. eCollection 2025.
This study focuses on the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020 in the United States to assess how liquidity constraints were related to loneliness among older adults. Data are from the COVID Impact Survey, which was used to collect data in April, May and June 2020 across the U.S. (n = 5,664). We use means comparison tests and linear regressions and find that emergency savings, rather than household income, predict loneliness among older adults during the initial COVID-19 wave. Emergency savings, especially enough to avoid using credit cards, was most predictive of older adult loneliness levels. Income and access to emergency savings did not influence the relationship between actions taken and personal plans changed as a result of COVID-19. Easing lockdown restrictions was unrelated to the relationship between loneliness and liquidity constraints, actions taken and personal plans changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings suggest that, in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, loneliness associated with the actions taken to avoid COVID-19 and personal plans changed was experienced across all socio-economic groups of older adults in this sample in similar ways, regardless of income levels and wealth. In addition, a better understanding of loneliness in older age during the COVID-19 pandemic may require a fuller analysis of households' financial situation beyond income, and points to the central role of credit card debt for loneliness in older age.
本研究聚焦于2020年春季美国新冠疫情的第一波，以评估流动性约束与老年人孤独感之间的关系。数据来自《新冠影响调查》，该调查于2020年4月、5月和6月在美国各地收集（n = 5664）。我们使用均值比较检验和线性回归，发现应急储蓄而非家庭收入能预测新冠疫情第一波期间老年人的孤独感。应急储蓄，尤其是足以避免使用信用卡的储蓄，最能预测老年人的孤独感水平。收入和应急储蓄的获取情况并未影响因新冠疫情而采取的行动与个人计划改变之间的关系。放宽封锁限制与孤独感和流动性约束之间的关系无关，与因新冠疫情而采取的行动及个人计划改变无关。研究结果表明，在新冠疫情的最初几个月里，该样本中所有社会经济群体的老年人，无论收入水平和财富状况如何，因采取避免感染新冠疫情的行动和个人计划改变而产生的孤独感，其体验方式都大致相同。此外，要更好地理解新冠疫情期间老年人的孤独感，可能需要更全面地分析家庭除收入之外的财务状况，并指出信用卡债务在老年人孤独感方面的核心作用。
