One in eight Canadian seniors reports having been plagued by feelings of depression during the pandemic, a new study has revealed, quantifying the phenomenon for the first time.
The situation was even worse among those who had already experienced depression, as 45% of members of this group reported being depressed in the fall of 2020.
The study published by University of Toronto researchers in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is based on a survey of more than 22,600 older adults in Canada.
The data comes from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, which collected data from participants for an average of seven years, which makes it possible to compare the pre-pandemic situation to the pandemic itself, commented psychologist Sébastien Grenier.
“Before the pandemic, international studies showed an 8% or 10% rate of depression among seniors,” said Mr. Grenier, who is an associate professor in the psychology department at the Université de Montréal and a researcher at the Center of research at the University Institute of Geriatrics of Montreal.
Although the authors used a well-known questionnaire in the community, which gives some validity to their figures, Mr. Grenier points out that the new study stems from feelings self-reported by seniors, since it is obviously impossible to send more than 20,000 people get an official diagnosis of depression.
He also points out that the subjects studied were 50 and over, and that the reality of 50-59 year olds can be very different from that of 80-89 year olds, for example.
We already knew that the pandemic and confinement have been particularly hard on the mental health of seniors, who have often been deprived of contact with their family or friends.
This study, however, would be one of the first, if not the first, to measure what proportion of seniors experienced feelings of depression for the first time during the health crisis, and what impact the situation had on those who had a history of depression.
Insufficient income and savings, chronic pain, difficulty accessing health care, a history of difficult childhood experiences, and family conflict have been identified as contributing factors to seniors’ depression.
Those who before the pandemic perceived their income to be inadequate to support themselves and those who had less savings were more likely to become depressed during the crisis.
A study conducted by Mr. Grenier and his colleagues between March 2020 and March 2021 with 645 seniors aged 65 and over detected a distress rate of 15%, a figure comparable to that of the Ontario study.
But in both cases, said Mr. Grenier, we must not lose sight of the fact that “yes, there are people who are not doing well, but the vast majority are still doing quite well”.