Tracking Health-related Outcomes Of Older Adults Pre- And Post- Covid: A Longitudinal Study

INTRODUCTION: It is important to determine if the COVID-19 pandemic has affected health outcomes of older adults to determine if adjustments in health promotion and wellness interventions are needed. PURPOSE: To compare health-related outcomes of a selected group of older adults before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This study is part of a multi-year initiative started in 2018 entitled Sacramento Senior Health Assessment and Physical Examination (Sac-SHAPE). Potential participants were members of an older-adult social group in the greater Sacramento, California area. Study subjects completed paper-based health outcomes questionnaires including sleep, stress level and nutrition, and underwent performance-based testing of selected fitness, balance, fall risk and mobility-related measures. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the combined data two years immediately prior to the pandemic (2018 and 2019) and two years post-COVID-19 (2022 and 2023). No data were obtained in 2020 and 2021 because of the community quarantine status during those pandemic years. RESULTS: There were 264 participants with a mean age of 71.92 years, (SD 6.3; range 60-89 years). We administered a total of 20 health-related tests. Data analyzed were from 189 (71.59%) participants pre- and 75 (28.41%) participants post-COVID-19. There were no significant differences between the two groups on all health-related outcome measures. DISCUSSION: Results indicated that there was no decline in the health outcomes of the participants after the COVID-19 pandemic. This finding is not consistent with the preliminary data available in the literature that report worse health outcomes in older adults after the pandemic. We hypothesize that the reason for the difference was that our study population came from a cohort that was predominantly from a higher education and socioeconomic status, with adequate access to healthcare and health resources, and high health literacy. Future studies should consider older adult populations where social determinants of health may be a consideration.