A study has found that older men may worry less about COVID-19 and may be less likely to make behavioral changes in response to the pandemic.
New research has found that despite being a more at-risk demographic, older men are likely to worry less and make fewer behavioral changes in response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
The research, published in The Journals of Gerontology, concludes that older men might require more education and intervention to ensure that they perceive the risks of COVID-19 accurately.
The sudden emergence and rapid spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as well as the risks associated with contracting COVID-19, have necessitated radical changes in people’s everyday life.
Emerging information about the virus has identified the demographics most vulnerable to a severe reaction to the virus.
While everyone should be making behavioral changes to reduce the spread of the virus, vulnerable groups need to take extra care, since severe COVID-19 can be life threatening.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 8 out of 10 COVID deaths in the United States have been people aged 65 and over. Research has also shown that men are at higher risk of a worse disease outcome, including death.
Given this, one may expect that men aged 65 and over may be more cautious and more worried about the virus. However, previous research has shown that older men are less likely to worry about death and their mortality than other demographics.
According to Dr. Sarah Barber, a gerontology and psychology researcher at Georgia State University and corresponding author of the study, “[n]ot only do older adults exhibit less negative emotions in their daily lives, they also exhibit less worry and fewer PTSD symptoms following natural disasters and terrorist attacks.
“In normal circumstances, not worrying as much is a good thing. Everyday life is probably happier if we worry less. However, where COVID-19 is concerned, we expected that lower amounts of worry would translate into fewer protective COVID-19 behavior changes.”
The present paper explored whether these known reductions in worry were the same or similar concerning COVID-19 and if this