The US CDC data show the fatality rate of COVID-19 steadily rises with age, and that men are more at risk than women. Men are more than twice as likely to die of COVID-19 than women, regardless of age, according to previous research.
A new study, published in the Journals of Gerontology, says that older men may be at greater risk of contracting COVID-19 because they worry less about catching or dying from it than women their age or than younger people of both sexes. This is of concern since older men are already more at risk of severe or fatal COVID-19 infections.
"Not only do older adults exhibit less negative emotions in their daily lives, they also exhibit less worry and fewer post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms following natural disasters and terrorist attacks," said Sarah Barber, a gerontology and psychology researcher at Georgia State University.
She said that this may be because older adults have better coping strategies, perhaps gained through experience, and thus are able to regulate their emotional responses better.
It is well established that worry is a key motivator of behavioural health changes, said Barber, including motivating people to engage in preventive health care activities such as healthy eating, exercise and timely screenings. In general, worry begins to ease with age, and is also lower among men than women.
Knowing that older adults tend to worry less, Barber conducted a study to see how this affected responses to the global pandemic.
An online survey research was conducted among college-educated people, who lived in the US and primarily of Caucasian origin. They were either aged 18-35 or aged 65-81, with 146 younger adults and 156 older adults.
The questionnaire assessed behavioural changes that can reduce infection risk, from washing hands more often, to wearing a mask, avoiding socializing, avoiding public places, observing a complete quarantine or taking more care with a balanced diet and purchasing extra food or medications.
"In normal circumstances," said Barber, "not worrying as much is a good thing. Everyday life is probably happier if we worry less. However, where COVID-19 is concerned, we expected that lower amounts of worry would translate into fewer protective COVID-19 behaviour changes."
The analysis found that most participants were at least moderately concerned about the pandemic. More than 80 per cent of participants reported washing their hands more frequently, taking more care about cleanliness, no longer shaking hands and avoiding public places. More than 60 per cent of participants also reported no longer socialising with others. The participants who were most worried about Covod-19 were also the most likely to have implemented these behavior changes.
Compared to all other participants, older men were less worried about Covid-19, and had adopted the fewest number of behaviour changes. They were relatively less likely to have worn a mask, to report having stopped touching their faces or to have purchased extra food.
"Our study showed that for older men, accurate perception of risk worked as well as worry to predict preventive behaviours," she said.
If older men can be better educated about the virus, they may adopt protective behaviours even if they don't feel worried.
Either way, said Barber, older men may need a little extra coaching and attention to risk assessment and protective behaviours, both from concerned family members as well as their healthcare practitioners.
