Early COVID-19 Public Messaging and its Impact on Older Adult Demonstrations of Personal Agency.

IF 1.7 4区医学 Q3 GERONTOLOGY

Canadian Journal on Aging-Revue Canadienne Du Vieillissement Pub Date : 2025-03-28 DOI:10.1017/S0714980825000108

Stephanie Chesser, Ruheena Sangrar, Julia Cacoilo, Saadia Ahmed, Michelle M Porter

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: Exposure to COVID-19 messaging that conflates older age with risk/infirmity has been suggested to have negative effects on older people's sense of personal agency (i.e., sense of capacity to exercise control over one's life).

Objectives: This qualitative study sought to determine how older adults perceived this vulnerability narrative within early COVID-19 public messaging and how this may have influenced their personal agency.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews with 15 community-dwelling older adults in Manitoba were completed and analysed using inductive thematic analysis.

Findings: Study findings suggest that early COVID-19 public health messaging created associations between vulnerability and older age that increased the participants' sense of age-related risk. As a response, many participants described engaging in certain actions (e.g., lifestyle behaviours, following public health protocols, coping mechanisms) to potentially increase their feelings of personal agency.

Discussion: This study suggests that creators of public messaging pertaining to older age must be mindful of the ways that it may fuel a vulnerability narrative.

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来源期刊

Canadian Journal on Aging-Revue Canadienne Du Vieillissement GERONTOLOGY-

CiteScore

3.40

自引率

5.30%

发文量

109

期刊介绍： The Canadian Journal on Aging/La Revue canadienne du vieillissement (CJA/RCV) promotes excellence in research and disseminates the latest work of researchers in the social sciences, humanities, health and biological sciences who study the older population of Canada and other countries; informs policy debates relevant to aging through the publication of the highest quality research; seeks to improve the quality of life for Canada"s older population and for older populations in other parts of the world through the publication of research that focuses on the broad range of relevant issues from income security to family relationships to service delivery and best practices.