Abstract:
Background and Objectives: Elderly people may have difficulties understanding the quality and quantity of information about the COVID-19 epidemic, which can put an additional mental strain on their health and well-being. The purpose of this study was to explore the processing of COVID-19 information among older people. Materials and Methods: A qualitative study was carried out in summer 2021. The sampling was based on the snowball method. This approach allowed us to communicate with the next potential participants relatively freely and without reservations. Two female researchers (both MD, PhD) conducted the interviews. All interviews were held in Serbian. The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: The interviews were conducted with 13 participants (average age 71 years). The analysis of qualitative content suggested that four topics could be identified: (1) sources of information, (2) information interest and need, (3) reporting of information and (4) suggestions for better reporting. The participants were troubled by the excess of information, repetitive information about death tolls, unqualified people in media discussing the pandemic and inconsistent reporting. These features caused the participants to feel the psychological burden in processing all the pieces of information. Conclusions: The elderly people in Serbia followed mainstream media to get information about COVID-19; however, they perceived a variety of problems with reporting, which made the understanding of the information difficult and psychologically burdensome. These findings should be taken into consideration when delivering health-related information to elderly people.
摘要:
背景和目的:老年人可能难以理解有关COVID-19流行的信息的质量和数量,这会给他们的健康和幸福带来额外的精神压力。本研究的目的是探讨老年人对COVID-19信息的处理。材料与方法:2021年夏季进行了一项定性研究。采样基于滚雪球法。这种方法使我们能够相对自由地和毫无保留地与下一个潜在参与者进行交流。两名女性研究人员(均为医学博士,博士)进行了采访。所有采访都以塞尔维亚语进行。采用定性内容分析法对数据进行分析。结果:对13名参与者(平均年龄71岁)进行了访谈。对定性内容的分析表明,可以确定四个主题:(1)信息来源,(2)信息兴趣和需求,(3)报告信息和(4)更好的报告建议。参与者对信息过剩感到困扰,关于死亡人数的重复信息,媒体中不合格的人讨论大流行和前后矛盾的报道。这些特征使参与者在处理所有信息时感到心理负担。结论:塞尔维亚的老年人跟随主流媒体获得有关COVID-19的信息;然而,他们意识到报告存在各种问题,这使得对信息的理解变得困难和心理负担。在向老年人提供健康相关信息时,应考虑这些发现。