Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Economic Activities and Well-being of Older Adults in South-eastern Nigeria: Lessons for Gerontological Social Workers

More invisible and vulnerable: the impact of COVID-19 on older persons in displacement in Durumi IDP camp Abuja, Nigeria

“…Numerous scholars have indicated that the family has been the primary source of support to older persons in traditional societies like Nigeria (Agbawodikeizu et al, 2021;Ekoh et al, 2020;Ekoh et al, 2021;Oginyi et al, 2017;Ebimgbo, et al, 2019), especially during crises (Chang and Taormina, 2011;Chao, 2016;Oginyi et al, 2017;Olanrewaju et al, 2018), helping to improve resilience and reduce stress in the lives of older persons (Gaveras et al, 2014;Dai et al, 2016;Gouveia et al, 2016;Tariq, 2020). This study, however, has shown that COVID-19 has weakened the role of the family in providing support to older persons in displacement because the pandemic has led to harsher economic realities.…”

“…Social support from family and friends may also become even more limited as the movement restrictions and economic hardship increase, and this is more difficult in Nigeria where family and friends are the major sources of care and support for older persons (Agbawodikeizu et al, 2021;Ekoh et al, 2020;Ekoh et al, 2021;Oginyi et al, 2017;Olanrewaju et al, 2018;Ebimgbo et al, 2019). Family members of older persons in displacement may not be able to visit and spend time with them, causing the older persons to feel isolated.…”

Perceived Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Security in Southeast Nigeria

“…Earlier, several empirical studies had looked at the food security situations in Nigeria, (Babatunde et al, 2007;Agada and Igbokwe, 2015;Ahmed et al, 2015) examined the factors influencing food security and its coping strategies. Akukwe (2019) evaluated household food security and its determinants, while Egwue et al (2020) and Agbawodikeizu et al (2021) investigated food insecurity of rural households during COVID-19 and the impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on economic activities and well-being of older adults in Southeast Nigeria. Amongst these studies, none had assessed the perceived effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on individual household food security with reference to COVID19 determinants, recommended food consumption, calorie in-takes, and food sources of individual households before and after the Pandemic.…”

“…Factors affecting food availability, accessibility, and use during the Pandemic is presented in Table 6. The table reveals that 60% of the households opined that artificial scarcity affected food availability, accessibility, and use during the Pandemic; this means that the COVID-19 Pandemic created some form of artificial scarcity in the sense that some of the marketers or goods sellers took good advantage of the period and hoarded their wares, making it look scarce with an ulterior motive of making excess profits at sales (Agbawodikeizu et al, 2021).This attitude of the sellers or marketers really affected food availability, accessibility, and use during the Pandemic. About 86% of the households attested that increase in food prices hugely influenced negatively the three dimensions of food security (food availability, accessibility, and use) during the Pandemic; this implies that the COVID-19 Pandemic initiated increase in prices of food materials due to the total lockdowns imposed by the government that clapped down markets and other sources of food vendors thereby initiating artificial scarcity leading to increase in food prices of food materials (Oginni et al, 2020).…”

“…thus affecting the availability, accessibility, and use of food during the Pandemic (Uchechukwu et al, 2022). About 64.1% of the households indicated low income; it was generally obvious and true that the COVID-19 Pandemic induced low capital since people's jobs and source of earnings were hugely interrupted resulting from the lockdown (Agbawodikeizu et al, 2021). As a result, incomes were affected, and this negatively influenced food security in the Southeast region.…”