Incorporating issues of Elderly Loneliness into the COVID-19 Public Health Response

As the systems that people depend on are increasingly strained by the COVID-19 outbreak, public health impacts are manifesting in different ways beyond morbidity and mortality for elderly populations. Loneliness is already a chief public health concern that is being made worse by COVID-19. Agencies...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness 2020-05, p.1
Main Authors: Patel, Sonny S, Clark-Ginsberg, Aaron
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Request full text
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Summary:As the systems that people depend on are increasingly strained by the COVID-19 outbreak, public health impacts are manifesting in different ways beyond morbidity and mortality for elderly populations. Loneliness is already a chief public health concern that is being made worse by COVID-19. Agencies should recognize the prevalence of loneliness amongst elderly populations and the impacts that their interventions have on loneliness. This letter describes several ways that loneliness can be addressed to build resilience for elderly populations as part of public health response to COVID-19.
DOI:10.1017/dmp.2020.145