Precarious ageing in a global pandemic – older adults' experiences of being at risk due to COVID-19

Abstract

Health authorities worldwide address older adults as a risk group for more serious illness and health complications associated with COVID-19, while social gerontologists have warned that addressing older adults as a risk group of COVID-19 bears the risk of reinforcing ageism. This paper empirically explores to what extent older adults perceive themselves as part of a COVID-19 risk group and how these perceptions influence their everyday lives and experiences of age and ageing. This paper draws upon data from a mixed-methods study on older adults' risk perceptions during COVID-19 in Lower Austria, including a representative survey on 521 adults (60+ years) and data from 20 semi-structured interviews. Approximately two-thirds of the respondents consider themselves at risk of COVID-19 and name age, in addition to pre-existing illness, as a contributing factor in this risk perception. Older adults with health constraints, and especially older men, have a higher probability of perceiving risk due to COVID-19. Additionally, older adults report that they experience being ‘suddenly seen as old’ or ‘being put into a box’ during the pandemic, which influenced their experiences and images of ageing. Our study provides insights into how perceived COVID-19 risk affects the everyday lives of older adults. Age-based categorisations of risk contribute to a shift in images of age and ageing, drawing on insecurity and risk, rather than successful and active ageing, to conceptualise later life.

Social infrastructures and older adults' webs of care: COVID‐19 as spatial breach

“…This paper has extended Butcher's (2019) notion of spatial breach beyond its original application in the context of gentrification to examine more broadly how disruptions to the spaces and cultural frames that foster social connectedness can impact social life, in this case amongst older adults. The paper showed that the spatial restrictions applied during COVID‐19 had been premised upon the perceived biological vulnerability of older adults to the virus, and it entrenched public perceptions that ‘create[d] the lived experience of vulnerability in later life through systematic, institutional and cultural circumstances’ (Gallistl et al, 2022, p. 4). This paper has countered some vulnerability tropes by demonstrating how older adults practise resilience and adaptiveness, such as by continuing with their social activities or pivoting to digital communication.…”

How Active Are European Seniors—Their Personal Ways to Active Ageing? Is Seniors’ Activity in Line with the Expectations of the Active Ageing Strategy?

“…To check how a selected group of seniors assesses at what age people reach old age, we checked the average age reported by Europeans from the countries selected for the analysis (this is question D17 from the ESS 2018 survey). Next, we checked the consistency of the accepted age limit (65) with the mean using the t-test.…”

“…At this point, it should be noted that new stereotypes are constantly emerging. For example, in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, ageing was not perceived through AA's prism but through the risk of disease [65].…”

“…A welcoming place is essential in the implementation of AA policy in the security pillar [65,74]. In order for seniors to willingly implement AA, it is necessary to create the right environment, i.e., guaranteeing safe, close, familiar space for social and physical activities while guaranteeing a sense of control over their lives.…”