Relationship of decrease in frequency of socialization to daily life, social life and physical function in community-dwelling adults aged 60 and over after the covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The study is cross-sectional in nature and aims to investigate the relationship of the frequency of socialization (FOS) to the daily life, social life, and physical function of community-dwell-ing adults aged 60 and over after the COVID-19 outbreak. A self-reported questionnaire survey was conducted on 3000 members of CO-OP Kagoshima, out of which 342 responses were received. Bi-variate statistics was conducted followed by multiple logistic regression analysis. Questions with significant differences were set as independent variables, whereas the FOS was set as the dependent variable. Results indicate significant group differences between the decreased and increased/un-changed groups. After adjusting for potential covariates, multiple logistic regression analysis re-vealed decreases in the frequencies of cooking (OR: 0.07; 95% CI: 0.01–0.69; p = 0.02), shopping (OR: 18.76; 95% CI: 7.12–49.41; p < 0.01), and eating out (OR: 3.47; 95% CI: 1.21–9.97; p = 0.02), which were significantly associated with decreased FOS. The finding may inform policy making in identifying priorities for support in daily life for community-dwelling adults over the age of 60 undergoing social distancing.