Background The elderly are more vulnerable to COVID‐19 and therefore need to adopt long‐term social distancing measures. The duration of quarantine impacts the psychological status of the general population. However, until now no study has explored the psychological impact of the pandemic and quarantine together with longitudinal changes in the mental health status of Italian elderly. Methods An online questionnaire including an assessment of depression, anxiety, anger, post‐traumatic stress, subjective cognitive failures, resilience, coping style, and other dimensions related to the pandemic was completed by participants during (T0) and two months after the end (T1) of the quarantine. Results The sample recruited at T0 included 334 elderly participants. About 45% of the participants experienced depression, anxiety, or anger. Moreover, more fear of getting infected was related to more severe depression, anxiety, and anger, but resilience was found to mediate these relationships. More severe depressive and anger symptoms were related to more severe cognitive failures. No significant difference was observed in mental health scores between T0 and T1. Finally, more severe depression at T0 was associated with the development of post‐traumatic stress symptoms at T1. Conclusions The fear of getting infected, probably due to perceived vulnerability to disease, seems to play a crucial role in the development of psychological symptoms in the elderly, but resilience seems to mediate the impact of fear. The presence of long‐term psychological consequences and the possible risk of developing PTS symptoms in the elderly suggest the need for targeted interventions to reduce possible long‐term psychological and cognitive consequences.

Objective The quarantine/self-isolation measures implemented to retard the spread of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) may negatively affect the mental health of the population. The present study aimed to explore the impact of the psychological symptoms on the occurrence of cognitive failures in a large sample of home-dwelling Italian individuals during quarantine/self-isolation for COVID-19. Methods We employed an online questionnaire using a virtual platform of Google Moduli. The questionnaire included an assessment of cognitive failures evaluated by the Perceived Memory and Attentional Failures Questionnaire (PerMAFaQ) and of resilience, coping style, depression, anger, and anxiety. Results The online questionnaire was completed by 4175 participants revealing that about 30% of participants complained of cognitive failures at least sometimes during quarantine/self-isolation, whereas some respondents reported very frequent cognitive failures. Moreover, resilience was found to mediate the relationships between depressive and anger symptoms and cognitive failures. Although no difference was found on PerMAFaQ among smart-workers, non-smart-workers, and those currently not at work, people not working at the moment complained of more frequent cognitive failures. Conclusions These findings indicate the need to implement psychological support intervention, particularly for vulnerable groups, to reduce anxiety, depression, and anger, and of psychoeducational interventions to enhance resilience reducing possible long-term cognitive consequences of the quarantine.

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Objective Individuals experienced psychological symptoms in response to quarantine for the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the possible effect of age and gender on the evolution of mental health status after the quarantine in the Italian population and the baseline predictors of post-traumatic stress symptoms. Methods An online follow-up questionnaire including an assessment of depression, anxiety, anger, post-traumatic stress, subjective cognitive failures, resilience, and coping style was completed by participants 2 months after the end of the quarantine (n = 758). Results Individuals experienced psychological symptoms also 2 months after the end of the quarantine. No decrease in depression and anxiety scores emerged, but younger individuals and females experienced more severe symptoms. Anger symptoms decreased in young adults, whereas they increased in older adults. Moreover, individuals reported more cognitive failures at follow-up. No changes were observed in resilience, whereas participants reported adopting fewer coping strategies at follow-up. Finally, post-traumatic stress symptoms 2 months after the end of the lockdown were associated with more severe psychological symptoms and more fear of getting infected at baseline. Conclusions Our findings demonstrate that the long-term psychological impact and the cognitive consequences of quarantine differ according to age and gender. The identification of more vulnerable groups allows the implementation of interventions to reduce psychological symptoms and the risk for cognitive impairment.

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