COVID-19 has Affected Activities of Daily Living in Older Adults?

Research Objectives

To investigate that Coronavirus disease (COVID-19)has affected to performed activities of daily living, we analyzed the association between confirmation of COVID-19 and help in activities of daily living.

Design

Our study was a cross-sectional study using secondary data.

Setting

The participants were living in the general community and residential care and nursing home.

Participants

We used 3119 adult observations in the 2020 COVID-19 National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS). We are separate the group by confirmed of COVID-19.

Interventions

Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures

The dependent variable of study was the frequency of help in activity of daily living. In the NHATS survey, the question is follow as “During the COVID-19 outbreak, has anyone ever helped you with sub-item relative activities of daily living?”. The answer was yes or no. We summed the number of yes and used it as the dependent variable. The independent variable was confirmed of COVID-19.

Results

We applied multiple imputation methods due to missing data. When removing the missing data, Yes-COVID-19 group was 26 and No-COVID-19 group was 2091. The Yes-COVID-19 group was composed of 18 males (45.00%) and 22 females (55.00%). The No-COVID-19 group was composed of 1299 males (42.20%) and 1779 (57.80%). The Yes-COVID-19 group was living in general community (n=32, 80.00%), residential care (n=5, 12.50%) and nursing home (n=3, 7.50%). The No-COVID-19 group was living in general community (n=2889, 93.86%), residential care (n=161, 5.23%) and nursing home (n=28, 0.91%). The frequency of help in activity of daily living was Yes-COVID-19 group higher than No-COVID-19 group. In addition, the relative risk of help in activity of daily living was Yes-COVID-19 group higher than No-COVID-19 (relative risk=1.84, 95% confidence level=1.59-2.08, p < .0001).

Conclusions

Our study is confirmed COVID-19 is affected activity of daily living in older adults. Our finding is suggested that the need for the rehabilitation program after confirmation of COVID-19. Also, we need to investigate the research of demand in a rehabilitation program.

Author(s) Disclosures

All authors declares that he has no conflict of interest.