OLDER CANADIANS LESS LIKELY TO SUFFER DEPRESSION
Inverse response to their degree of risk in pandemic
If one thing is crystal clear after eight months of pandemic, it’s that the risk of getting severely ill from COVID-19 climbs dramatically with age.
Of the 9,011 Canadians who had succumbed to the coronavirus by Tuesday, almost 97 per cent per cent were 60 or over.
But an intriguing new study by Alberta researchers suggests that it’s people under 25 who are most likely to be seriously anxious, depressed or stressed about the coronavirus and its fallout.
And those 60 and older were least likely to show signs of such conditions in a survey of people who use the province’s unique new COVID mental-health app.
“It definitely was a surprise,” said Dr. Vincent Agyapong, a University of Alberta psychiatry professor who spearheaded the study.
“The elderly ... were thought to be most at risk of contracting COVID and having severe complications ...
“One would expect they would be the group that would be kind of panicking the most.”
Agyapong admitted the survey respondents represent a “snapshot” and do not statistically mirror the makeup of Canada’s general population.
But he said the seemingly counterintuitive findings do jibe with the type of young patients he’s been seeing at a drop-in mental-health clinic in Edmonton.
He suggests several explanations, from the greater psychological hardiness older people build up over a long life, to the economic uncertainty faced by individuals entering adulthood amid a deep recession.
Another expert who’s been studying the mental-health impact of the pandemic and lockdown said the study was interesting, but not a particular surprise.
People under 40 and students are at particularly high risk for depressive symptoms, according to a recent “meta-analysis” of pandemic studies published by Dr. Roger McIntyre and colleagues.
A separate study by the University of Toronto psychiatry professor and Chinese researchers found that depressive symptoms among residents of Wuhan, China, increased with the amount of time they spent on social media during the pandemic.
The authors blamed the result partly on the spread of COVID-19 misinformation over such online platforms, which could amplify panic and risky behaviour.
“Young people are doing especially bad, probably related to loneliness and maladaptive coping strategies,” McIntyre said via email.
“Although older people are more prone to virus infection/complications, I would not expect them to be worse off psychosocially,” he said. “The link between economic/employment security and mental health — which is a powerful hazard at this time — is not generally applicable to older people.”
The Alberta study — published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health — surveyed 8,300 of the individuals who had downloaded the province’s groundbreaking Text4Hope app. It sends out text messages to users to combat negative feelings during the pandemic.
Of the 823 respondents 25 and under, 96 per cent showed indications of moderate or high stress, 66 per cent signs of anxiety disorder and 67 per cent major depressive disorder — the highest levels of four age groups.
Among the 475 in the 60-and-over cohort, the rates were 68 per cent for stress, 23 per cent for anxiety and 26 per cent for depression — the lowest of the groups.
In some ways, younger people have had their more mobile, active lives disrupted the most by the virus and lockdowns, with schools closing, part-time work drying up and even extracurricular outlets like gyms shuttered, noted Agyapong.
Older people — especially those already retired — face less economic uncertainty, and have more experience dealing with adversity of various kinds, he said.
“They certainly are more likely to have built some level of resilience, and are not expecting the very worst-case scenarios.”
Meanwhile, Agyapong said the Text4Hope app seems to be helping, generating positive feedback that he and colleagues plan to report on in forthcoming journal papers.
Two states in Australia have also been talking to the professor about setting up their own version of the program, while he’s been fielding calls and emails from the U.S. as well.
One message generated by the app Wednesday:
“We can be unhappy about many things, but joy can still be there. It is important to know that at every stage of our life, we have an opportunity to choose joy.”