Title : The relationship between mental health and loneliness in the elderly in the corona pandemic
Abstract:
Abstract
Aim: Corona pandemic has a negative impact on the health and well-being of communities and individuals worldwide. One concern is the impact of social isolation due to as a result of social distance on the mental health of including older adults elderly people. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between mental health and loneliness of the elderly in the corona pandemic.
Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 211 retired older adults of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences were selected by the available sampling method in 1399. Data were collected through the Demographic, Mental Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) and the Adult Social and Emotional Feeling Questionnaire (SELSA-S). Data were analyzed using paired t-test, one-way analysis of variance, covariance, and chi-square. The significance level was considered 0.05.
Results: The mean age of participants was 71.26 years and the results showed that there was a significant relationship between feeling lonely and mental health (r = 0.535, p = 0.001). Spearman correlation coefficient test showed that between feeling lonely with four subscales of mental health including physical symptoms (r = 0.478, p = 0.001), anxiety and insomnia (r = 0.431, p = 0.001), disorder There is a statistically significant relationship between social functioning (r = -0.204, p ≥ 0.001) and depression (r = 0.501, p = 0.001) and also between mental health and three subscales of romantic loneliness (0/ 28). There is a statistically significant relationship between (r = 0.001 ?p = 0.001), social loneliness (r = 0.493, p = 0.001) and family loneliness (r = 0.289, p = 0.001).
Conclusion: Feeling lonely due to the coronavirus disease pandemic has a negative effect on the mental health of the elderly; the mental health team must improve the mental health of the elderly with proper planning and interventions. Therefore, it is necessary for the mental health team to improve the mental health of the elderly with proper planning and interventions.
