Letter to highlight the effects of isolation on elderly during COVID‐19 outbreak

The elderly population is one of the most vulnerable population during the COVID-19 pandemic. Loneliness and isolation as a result of quarantine has detrimental mental health issues in elderly population. There is a high chance of increased rates of suicide in elderly population as a result of isolation. Interventional strategies such as online social support, online mental health services, and telemedicines should be utilized to reduce the impending mental health issues in elderly population due to isolation during quarantine. The current COVID-19 pandemic has quickly spread its root all over the globe in very short span. With no proper treatment, advice about isolating the most vulnerable population, which is that of the elderly individuals has been made. However, with isolation comes a lot of other mental health issues which the current study attempted to highlight. The elderly population has been advised to be kept under isolation globally for a long time to come, while the world is reeling with the negative consequences of COVID-19. The reason behind this push is to unburden the already taxed health care system, while the world finds to contain effectively the COVID-19 through lockdowns, social distancing, social isolation and curfews as the medical breakthrough is not in the sight yet virtually. The population in its late-adulthood is already at increased risk of autoimmune, mental health, and neuro-cognitive problems and hence social isolation is a vitally significant interest of public health.1 A recent study by Santini and his colleagues reported that at late adulthood social isolation has a more considerable risk of anxiety and depression.2 The directive from the government to the older adults for staying at home and self-isolation merits vigorous research input to illuminate the consequent physical and mental health complications. The resultant consequences will be more for elderly whose only contact is at the church or outside of the house at community centers or dependent upon voluntary services. The social seclusion will place them at an increased risk alongside those who are already isolated and lonely.3 During the previous SARS-CoV-1 outbreak of 2003 around 300 people died in Hong Kong. Out of the 15% fatality rate, 55% of the death cases were of people older than 60 years.4 It was observed that a lot of elderly people suffered not merely with physical health issues, but also with mental health issues like anxiety and fear during the epidemic.5 Not only that but a significant increase in suicide rates in the elderly population was equally found. A study conducted by Cheung et al.,6 during the SARS-CoV-1 outbreak, in Hong Kong, they assessed the prevalence of suicide in the elder population. Their findings suggested an excess in the suicide rate of older adults during the SARS-CoV-1 epidemic of 2003.6 Similar results were observed during the MERS-CoV outbreak of 2012 as well. In a study conducted by Ahmed,7 utilizing publicly available data of the Saudi Ministry of Health. A total of 1480 cases was reported in Saudi Arabia between the periods of 2012–2016 with a 41% mortality rate. He assessed that out of 616 total deaths 39.2% was of the elderly population (>60 years), while the average age of death was 54 years.7 His research along with many other researches on MERS-CoV, also identified several potential high-risk key factors and the elderly population was one of them. One avenue we suggest to explore is the informed use of online social technology to provide for networking, social support, an aided sense of belonging and social touch.8 There will be some glitches like digital literacy and hand on experience with technology. Another promising feature could be the encouragement of telephonic contacts with friends, family and significant others, professional from health care, voluntary organizations, and community support providers throughout the social seclusion period. Equivalently, we also recommend that the mental health professional can be mobilized to deliver cognitive behavior therapies online to mitigate the corrosive impacts of loneliness and enhance mental health.9 Social isolation measure could be followed smoothly at the beginning and for shorter durations and might enhance the capacity of our health care system to contain the spread and save the high-risk populations, but adherence in the long term would be difficult and decrease over extended periods. Another additional intervention can be the use of telemedicine services which can be of considerable help to take care of the older adults during their isolation. By applying this service, the healthcare professionals can stay in contact with the elderly isolated people online.10 This can keep the health professionals up to date about the physical medical conditions such as myocardial infection, strokes, pulmonary disorders or other high-risk conditions of the elderly patients of theirs. Through this paper we attempt to recommend a proactive approach to introduce a practical policy which can help avoid the morbidity of SARS-CoV-2 with other physical and mental health complications. The marginalized and disadvantaged populations will be considerably affected and hence the situation demands preventive strategies be implemented to target these vulnerable groups in the society. None declared. The research is a letter to the editor and no empirical data was collected for the particular research.