COVID-19 Pandemic: The Positives and Negatives from Older Adults' Perspective

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor Gerontological Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University

2 Clinical Instructor, Community health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Damanhur University

Abstract

COVID-19 is not the only pandemic or massive crisis to throw older adults' lives into disarray.
Nevertheless, it is the first of its kind on this scale to occur at a time when the world becomes more
connected. Exploring how older adults perceive It and how they see positive effects as well as
negative effects in these difficult circumstances, could help all mitigate COVID-19's and future
global crises' negative impacts. Aim: Determine the positives and negatives of COVID-19 from
older adults' perspective. Design: a descriptive research design was followed. Setting: Sharq
ElMadina Hospital outpatient clinics, Alexandria Governorate which affiliated to the Ministry of
health, Egypt. Subjects: Convenience sample of 170 older adults were recruited. Tools: Two tools
were used for data collection: 1) Older adults socio-demographic and health profile structured
interview schedule, 2) Older adults' perception of COVID-19 positives and negatives structured
interview schedule. Results: the present study result revealed that the highest COVID-19 positives
and negatives mean percent scores as perceived by the study subjects were related to the effect of
COVID-19 on their spirituality. The lowest positives mean percent score was related to financial
impacts of the pandemic. Also, the lowest negatives mean percent score was in relation to health
aspect. Conclusion: Despite the study subjects reported both negative and positive views of
COVID-19, the perceived positives mean scores were significantly greater than the negatives they
perceived. Recommendations: It's critical for gerontological nurses to provide extra support to
study participants who haven't been able to benefit from COVID-19 life changes in terms of seeing
the positive aspects of the changes to help their coping. Furthermore, gerontological nurses should
assist in learning from the study subjects' positive perspectives in order to improve the health of
those who saw low COVID-19 gains. 

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