Association between symptoms of psychological distress in Brazilian elderly and socio-demographic factors during the COVID-19 pandemic

The context of the worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 revealed the vulnerability of elderly people in relation to psychological consequences. This paper under analysis from the Life Span perspective, analyses the developmental trajectory in relation to genetic-biological and socio-cultural influences of elderly people. The research has an exploratory nature and was carried out with a sample of 289 Brazilian elderly aged over 60 years, recruited from the snowball technique, by virtual means. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed to calculate the frequencies of socio demographic variables and to estimate the association between socio demographic factors and symptoms of psychological distress, unadjusted Odds Ratios (OR) and confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated with a significance level of p < 0.05, through logistic regression analysis. These analyses were tabulated and analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The project was submitted and approved by the Research Ethics Committee, Opinion nº 3.954.129, CAAE: 30365720.8.0000.0008, registered in the Clinical Trials platform under code RBR-9pgwfc - Psychological effects of social isolation in the coronavirus pandemic; UTN code: U1111-1250-1962. The results indicated the female gender as the majority, with schooling ranging from 13 to 18 years old, Christian-Catholic religion, cohabitation with adult members, family income greater than US$ 229.66 and occupation of the retirement type. The most frequent symptoms of psychological discomfort were restlessness, insomnia, muscle tension, and the urge to cry in males, whose family income between US$ 172,25 and US$ 229,66 and housing size less than 50 m². It is concluded that there was a significant association between socio demographic and psychological factors, indicating variability between genders, family income and housing issues regarding the course of psychological distress in older adults. Therefore, it demonstrates relevant pointers for the identification of problems related to mental health and living conditions in the elderly population.