Table_1_The impact of the social isolation in elderly Brazilian mental health (anxiety and depression) during the COVID-19 pandemic.DOCX

The impact of social isolation in the pandemic context on elderly Brazilian mental health is little known, especially about the occurrence of depressive symptoms. In this study, we evaluated elderly people undergoing social isolation in order to identify factors associated with depression and which of these are more important to characterize elderly Brazilians with depression. In a cross-sectional, exploratory, and analytical study of a quantitative nature, the mental profile of elderly individuals subjected to social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic period was used. A total of 450 participants was divided into normal and depressive groups, and a form covering sociodemographic data, opinions/perceptions about the pandemic, and a Reduced Geriatric Depression Scale was used to assess participants' mental health. To assess the statistical significance between the variables, chi-square test was applied, considering the p-value <0.05. The effect size was analyzed to identify the magnitude of the difference between groups. To identify the most important characteristics to define the groups Multilayer Perceptron algorithm were applied. We found that elderly people with a depressive profile are (in Multilayer Perceptron rank order) (1) showing signs of anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic, (2) of low education, (3) being divorced, (4) having more than one mental disorder, (5) reading, watching, or listening to information about COVID-19, and (6) being previously diagnosed with depression. In conclusion, elderly Brazilians in social isolation tend to develop depressive disorders during quarantine. Thus, we can consider that the pandemic requires effective and safe gerontological care and monitoring, especially with regard to mental health.

新冠疫情背景下的社交隔离对巴西老年群体心理健康的影响尚不明确，尤以抑郁症状的发生情况为甚。本研究针对处于社交隔离状态的老年群体开展评估，旨在识别与抑郁症状相关的影响因素，并明确其中哪些因素对区分伴抑郁症状的巴西老年人具有最高辨识度。本研究为定量性质的横断面探索分析研究，以新冠疫情期间实施社交隔离的老年个体的心理健康特征为研究对象。本研究共纳入450名研究对象，将其划分为正常组与抑郁症状组；研究采用涵盖社会人口学资料、疫情相关看法与感知的调查问卷，以及简版老年抑郁量表（Reduced Geriatric Depression Scale）对受试者的心理健康状况进行评估。为评估变量间的统计学显著性，本研究采用卡方检验（chi-square test），设定p值<0.05作为显著性阈值；同时通过效应量分析，明确组间差异的实际幅度。为筛选出对群组划分具有最高辨识度的关键特征，本研究采用多层感知机（Multilayer Perceptron）算法开展分析。分析结果显示，按多层感知机的特征重要性排序，伴抑郁症状的老年群体具有以下显著特征：（1）新冠疫情期间出现焦虑症状；（2）受教育程度较低；（3）婚姻状况为离异；（4）合并多种精神障碍；（5）主动获取新冠疫情相关资讯（阅读、观看或收听）；（6）既往曾被诊断为抑郁症。综上，处于社交隔离状态的巴西老年群体在疫情隔离期间更易出现抑郁障碍。由此可见，新冠疫情背景下亟需为老年群体提供高效且安全的老年医学照护与监测服务，尤其应关注其心理健康状况。