How does age affect personal and social reactions to COVID-19: Results from the national Understanding America Study

How does age affect personal and social reactions to COVID-19: Results from the national Understanding America Study The COVID-19 pandemic has had tremendous impact on Americans’ lives including their personal and social behaviors. While people of all ages are affected in some way by the pandemic, older persons have been far more likely to suffer the most severe health consequences. For this reason, how people have responded to mitigating behaviors to COVID-19 may differ by age. Using a nationally representative sample from the longitudinal data of the Understanding America Study (UAS), we examined differentials in behavioral responses to COVID-19 by age and how they changed over the first three months of the pandemic. Behavioral responses and changes in behavior over time differed by age, type of behaviors and time reference. At the beginning of the pandemic (March, 2020), older and younger people were similar in their likelihood of engaging in preventive personal behaviors when controlling for other influences. As the pandemic progressed, however, older people adopted mitigating personal behavioral changes more than younger people, such that about 1–2 months after the pandemic started, older people were more likely to comply with suggested behaviors and regulations including practicing better hygiene, quarantining, and social distancing. One month into the pandemic, older people were less likely than younger people to engage in two of four risky behaviors. The change in risky behavior over time did not differ by age; but both younger and older people were more likely to engage in risky behaviors after two months. Being female, a member of a racial/ethnic minority group, higher socioeconomic status, having more COVID-19 cases in one’s state of residence, a higher perceived risk for infection and dying, and a more left-leaning political orientation were related to adopting more pandemic mitigating behaviors. plosone

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Because of increased risk from COVID-19, older people should have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by engaging in more preventive behaviors and avoiding more risky behaviors. Some earlier research relevant to epidemics has suggested that being older is related to greater compliance and participation in practicing precautionary behaviors [14,15]; however, not all results are consistent in finding a strong age difference [16]. In addition, how soon people adopt healthy reactions may vary by age. Previous findings show that during the outbreak of the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic, older age was not related to taking preventive measures such as practicing better hygiene, avoiding persons with influenza-like symptoms and avoiding crowded places, but it was related to stronger intentions to comply with government-advised preventive measures in the future [17]. Once the spread of infection increases, people are more aware of the pandemic, and after governmental advice on practicing preventive behaviors is phased in [17], older people may take more precautions.

Behavioral change may differ by age, but it could also change over time. While we expect that as people become more aware of the risks, they will adopt the recommended behavioral modifications; however, it is possible that people may lose interest in continuing to practice recommended behaviors after an initial period [18]. In addition, this time dynamic may depend on the type of behaviors investigated. People may continue to abide by personal preventive behaviors such as wearing masks and personal hygiene; people may differ in their willingness to forgo social interactions for a longer term. People may also grow used to the pandemic and relax their behaviors over time. It is not clear how this time dynamic will be related to age. ...