Experiences of Older Adults During the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States: An Initial Exploration of Nationally Representative Data at the Intersection of Gender and Race

Abstract

Little is known about the overall experiences and feelings of diverse older populations during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. To provide the baseline information for future research and policy, this study analyzed the 2020 Health and Retirement Study COVID-19 project data (n = 1782). More than 70% of older adults reported the following activities: watching TV (98%), reading (90%), using a computer and the internet (83%), gardening (82%), walking (75%), baking and cooking (73%), and praying (73%). Volunteering and attending community groups, which are known to benefit well-being, were unpopular (less than 8%). During the pandemic, older adults were generally satisfied with their lives, but more than half of them were concerned about their own health, family’s health, and future prospects. Our study also showed the differences in the experiences and feelings by gender and race as well as the intersection of gender and race in the United States.

Keywords

intersectionality gender race COVID-19

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bauer

G. R.

Scheim

A. I.

(2019). Methods for analytic intercategorical intersectionality in quantitative research: Discrimination as a mediator of health inequalities. Social Science & Medicine, 226, 236-245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.12.015.

Benjamini

Braun

(2002). John W. Tukey’s contributions to multiple comparisons. The Annals of Statistics, 30(6), 1576-1594. https://doi.org/10.1214/aos/1043351247.

Bui

C. N.

Peng

Mutchler

J. E.

Burr

J. A.

(2020). Race and ethnic group disparities in emotional distress among older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Gerontologist, 61(2), 262-272. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnaa217.

Cai

(2014). Making comparisons fair: How LS-means unify the analysis of linear models. https://support.sas.com/resources/papers/proceedings14/SAS060-2014.pdf.

Crenshaw

(1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 140, 139-167.

DeMaris

(2004). Regression with social data: Modeling continuous and limited response variables. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Diener

Inglehart

Tay

(2013). Theory and validity of life satisfaction scales. Social Indicators Research, 112(3), 497-527.

Gemelas

Davison

Keltner

Ing

(2021). Inequities in employment by race, ethnicity, and sector during COVID-19. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, Advance online publication, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-021-00963-3.

Grimm

R. T.

(2018). Where are America’s volunteers? A look at America’s widespread decline in volunteering in cities and states. https://dogood.umd.edu/sites/default/files/2019-07/WhereAreAmericasVolunteers_ResearchBrief_Nov2018.pdf.

10.

Johnson

R. W.

Butrica

B. A.

(2012). Age disparities in unemployment and reemployment during the great recession and recovery. Unemployment and Recovery Project Brief, 3, 1-8.

11.

Krantz-Kent

(2018). Television, capturing America’s attention at prime time and beyond. https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-7/television-capturing-americas-attention.htm.

12.

McCall

(2005). The complexity of intersectionality. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 30(3), 1771-1800.

13.

Moen

(2001). The gendered life course. In Binstock

R. H.

George

L. K.

(Eds.), Handbook of aging and the social sciences (5th ed., pp. 179-196). Cambridge, MA: Academic Press.

14.

Montague

Frank

(2007). Creating whole-person wellness. https://www.assistedlivingconsult.com/issues/03-04/alc78-Wellness-719.pdf.

15.

Morgan

(2012). Paradigms in the gerontology classroom: Connections and challenges to learning. Gerontology & geriatrics education, 33(3), 324-335.

16.

Morrow-Howell

Galucia

Swinford

(2020). Recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic: A focus on older adults. Journal of Aging & Social Policy, 32(4-5), 526-535. https://doi.org/10.1080/08959420.2020.1759758.

17.

Russell

A. R.

Nyame-Mensah

de Wit

Handy

(2019). Volunteering and wellbeing among ageing adults: A longitudinal analysis. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 30(1), 115-128. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-018-0041-8.

18.

Sun

P. C.

Morrow-Howell

Pawloski

Helbach

(2021). Older adults’ attitudes toward virtual volunteering during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 40, 953-957. https://doi.org/10.1177/07334648211006978.

19.

The Institute for Social Research (2021). 2020 HRS COVID-19 project. https://hrsdata.isr.umich.edu/sites/default/files/documentation/data-descriptions/1613082944/2020COVID_DD_Feb2021.pdf.

20.

Zimmer

Jagger

Chiu

C.-T.

Ofstedal

M. B.

Rojo

Saito

(2016). Spirituality, religiosity, aging and health in global perspective: A review. SSM – Population Health, 2, 373-381. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2016.04.009.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.23 MB