Looking for the impact of COVID-19 on older Americans, University of Michigan researchers Dr. Lindsay Kobayashi and Dr. Jessica Finlay surveyed nearly 7,000 adults between the ages of 55 and 100 to find out what they were most concerned about due to our current global health crisis.
They talk to WEMU's Lisa Barry about their findings and what can be done with that information to improve lives as the pandemic plays out moving forward.
The two University of Michigan researchers were anticipating around a thousand people might take the time to participate in their COVID-19 coping study but ended up hearing from nearly 7,000 people across the United States and in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
The study was prompted by concerns that our current global health crisis is having a big impact on the lives of older adults as well as their sense of well being. The top five concerns discovered by the coping study were:
- Having family members or friends catch COVID-19
- Catching it themselves
- Serious illness due to COVID-19
- Retirement savings
- The future
More study results are currently being analyzed and will be revealed as the researchers continue to check in with study participants over the next year. The findings can be found on the study website, and the researchers are asking anyone with thoughts or concerns about the impact of the pandemic to email them directly.
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— Lisa Barry is the host of All Things Considered on WEMU. You can contact Lisa at 734.487.3363, on Twitter @LisaWEMU, or email her at lbarryma@emich.edu
