Age discrimination in delivery of health services to old people during COVID-19 pandemic: a scoping review study

Abstract

Background & objectives. Age discrimination causes many conse-quences and complications in old people as a high-risk group. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, delivery of care and treatment services to old people has become a major challenge. The present study aimed to synthesize and summarize the conditions of discrimination in the delivery of health services to old people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research design & methods. A scoping review was performed using Arkesy and O’Malley’s framework. PUBMED, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, ProQuest, Science direct, SPRINGER, and Wiley databases were searched using the related keywords. Out of 246 retrieved stud-ies, 21 published studies related to ageism toward old people in the delivery of healthcare services to old people during the COVID-19 pandemic were examined. Results. Most of the published reports were from European countries and the United States. Although they indicated a growing trend of an-ti-aging attitudes, there were some positive behaviors toward them. Promotion of anti-aging culture, discriminatory guidelines and decisions and feeling of insignificance by the old people themselves may be associated with the condition of discrimination against them. Discussion & implications. The articles were related to limited coun-tries. Owing to discriminatory behaviors in the delivery of health services to old people, it is necessary for health policy-makers to develop protocols on the delivery of healthcare services to this group transpar-ently to minimize harm, enhance positive behaviors toward this group, and train healthcare providers and old people.