Maintenance of high quality of life as an indicator of resilience during COVID-19 social distancing among community-dwelling older adults in Finland
Koivunen, K., Portegijs, E., Sillanpää, E., Eronen, J., Kokko, K., & Rantanen, T. (2022). Maintenance of high quality of life as an indicator of resilience during COVID-19 social distancing among community-dwelling older adults in Finland. Quality of Life Research, 31(3), 713-722. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-021-03002-0
Published in
Quality of Life ResearchAuthors
Date
2022Discipline
Gerontologia ja kansanterveysGerontologian tutkimuskeskusHyvinvoinnin tutkimuksen yhteisöGerontology and Public HealthGerontology Research CenterSchool of WellbeingCopyright
© The Author(s) 2021
Purpose
Social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic reduced possibilities for activities of choice potentially threatening quality of life (QoL). We defined QoL resilience as maintaining high quality of life and studied whether walking speed, absence of loneliness, living arrangement, and stress-coping ability predict QoL resilience among older people.
Methods
Community-dwelling 75-, 80-, and 85-year-old persons (n = 685) were interviewed and examined in 2017–2018 and were followed up during COVID-19 social distancing in 2020. We assessed QoL using the OPQOL-brief scale and set a cut-off for ‘constant high’ based on staying in the highest baseline quartile over the follow-up and categorized all others as having ‘low/moderate’. Perceived restrictiveness of the social distancing recommendations was examined with one item and was categorized as ‘yes’ or ‘no’ restrictiveness.
Results
Better stress-coping ability (OR 1.21, 95% CI 1.14–1.28) and not being lonely (OR 2.67, 95% CI 1.48–4.63) increased the odds for constant high QoL from before to amid social distancing, and the odds did not differ according to the perceived restrictiveness of the social distancing recommendations. Higher walking speed predicted constant high QoL only among those perceiving restrictiveness (OR 1.16, 95% CI 1.07–1.27). Living arrangement did not predict constant high QoL.
Conclusion
During social distancing, psychosocial resources helped to maintain good QoL regardless how restrictive the social distancing recommendations were perceived to be. Better physical capacity was important for constant high QoL only among those perceiving restrictiveness presumably because it enabled replacing blocked activities with open outdoor physical activities.
...
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SpringerISSN Search the Publication Forum
0962-9343Keywords
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https://converis.jyu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/101240868
Metadata
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- Liikuntatieteiden tiedekunta [3151]
Related funder(s)
European Commission; Research Council of FinlandFunding program(s)
ERC European Research Council, H2020; Academy Project, AoF
The content of the publication reflects only the author’s view. The funder is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
Additional information about funding
Open access funding provided by University of Jyväskylä (JYU). This work was supported by the European Research Council ERC Advanced Grant [693045 to T.R.]; the Academy of Finland [310526 to T.R. and 323541 to K.Kokko]; the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture [to E.P. and K.Kokko]. The content of this manuscript does not reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Responsibility for the information and views expressed in the manuscript lies entirely with the authors. ...License
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