Older adults in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic: health-related findings of the German Ageing Survey (DEAS)

Abstract

This narrative review brings together findings from the German Ageing Survey (DEAS) on the health situation of people in the second half of life during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, this review answers the question of whether older adults (i.e., people in late adulthood) were indeed more vulnerable in the early days of the pandemic than younger adults (i.e., people in middle adulthood). Findings on the following health indicators are presented: perceived threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, perceived age discrimination, self-reported changes in physical activity, loneliness, and self-rated health. The results show that a higher age should not be considered as a universal risk factor for particularly severe indirect health consequences due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most older adults did not perceive the COVID-19 pandemic as very threatening and rarely experienced discrimination based on their age. By contrast, many younger and older adults reported to be less physically active and they showed an increase in loneliness that was equally distributed across age groups. Moreover, self-rated health deteriorated compared to pre-pandemic levels—but only among older adults. This deterioration, however, seems to be associated with individual ageing rather than the pandemic situation. It can be concluded that older people in private households did not show a particularly unfavorable health situation in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.