Pandemic and perceived health status : a case study

Abstract

Each older person's perception of their health status is a fundamental factor in understanding quality of life and should be considered in social interventions. Health is one of the main concerns of the elderly, since at this stage of life there is a change in functional capacity and, consequently, a greater sense of fragility and dependence. The aim of this study was to analyze the perceived health of a group of elderly people attending the Day Care Centre (DC) and Home Support Service (HSS), as well as its comparison with the previous year, with the peer group and with the impact of the Pandemic. We conducted a questionnaire survey. We found that there is a relationship between gender and self-assessment of health status, with women being the ones who mostly make a negative assessment. Most of the older people had an "acceptable" value for self-assessment of health, followed by older people with a negative view of their health and only a very small number considered it to be positive. When health status was compared with the previous year the majority consider it to be "more or less the same" showing an adaptive process to ageing, followed by those who consider that their health status had worsened compared to the previous year. 38.1% of the elderly respondents considered that the pandemic had an impact on their health. All of them were female and belonged to the DC, a social response which suffered major impacts from the pandemic. Most of these elderly women consider that the greatest impact of this pandemic was at the psychological level