COVID-19 Pandemical Period: Issues and Strategies to Make Sustainable Socialization and Recreation for Elderly People in Long-Term Care Institutions

Abstract

The usual lives have been changed since the COVID-19 Outbreak took place. Elderly people suffer as much as others and their lives have been impacted a lot. This paper aims to analyze the social network use and the recreation and socialization activity participation before and after the COVID-19 pandemical appearance in long-term care institutions. In the empirical side of this research, the authors of this paper sent an email questionnaire to long-term care institutions located in Rio de Janeiro city, Brazil. In the theoretical side of this research, an investigation was carried out through the scientific databases. Data were analyzed using the programming languages Python, Excel, and IBM SPSS Statistics. As a result, this paper shows an apparent increase in social network use and a drop in recreation and socialization activity participation after the COVID-19 pandemical appearance in long-term care institutions. The presented findings are the first step, which can be part of future studies analyzing the potential growth in social network use among elderly people by comparing elderly residents with non-residents in the long-term care institutions.