Infodemia de covid-19: associação com depressão, estresse e ansiedade em idosos que utilizam as mídias digitais

Abstract

The overabundance of information, known as infodemic, may create confusion, insecurity and panic, affecting people's mental health. This flood of information became even more marked with the covid-19 pandemic, especially with the spread through digital media. Elderly people are more exposed to infodemic because they usually cannot organize or understand the proliferation of news and have less experience with digital technologies, which might impact their mental health. Aiming to analyze the relationship between covid-19 infodemic and stress, depression and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) among the elderly who use digital media living in Juiz de Fora/MG, this crosssectional study was developed using web-based data collection which is part of phase 1 of the mixed multicenter project “covid-19 Infodemic and its repercussions on the mental health of the elderly: a multicenter study Brazil/Portugal/Chile/Mexico/Colombia/Peru". Sociodemographic questionnaires were used regarding the access to news and information on covid-19, perceived stress scale (PSS), geriatric depression scale (GDS) and geriatric anxiety inventory (GAI-BR). A total of 470 elderly people were included in the analysis with descriptive statistics for the variables. In association analysis, for the variables reporting p ≤ 0.10 regression models were used adjusting for variables, given that those with p-value less than 0.05 were considered in the final model. Most respondents were aged between 60 and 69 years (61.3%), female (67.2%), white race/color (71.1%) and with higher education level (40.6%). Exposure to information about covid-19 occurred in 89.4% on television and in 71.3% on social networks, causing concern (76.9%), fear about the death of loved ones (76, 8%) and fear off getting sick (74%). These signs and symptoms of psychopathological alterations were present in 3.8% of women and 5.9% of men, associated with a lower level of education, a decrease in post-pandemic income and the fact that the elderly feel affected by the news about covid19 published on social networks. Concerning perceived stress, the mean score was 20.5 with high levels found in 9.78% of the elderly. The variables associated with stress were: exposure to information on TV, responses generated by information about fear related to covid-19 on social networks and positive screening for psychological distress (physical and/or psychological signs and symptoms) caused and/or intensified by exposure to covid-19 related information. 26.1% of the elderly experienced depressive symptoms in association with exposure to information through social networks, feelings of being affected by information about covid-19 provided by television and social networks and the positive screening for psychological distress. Found in 18.4% of the sample, GAD was associated to feelings of anxiety due to information transmitted by radio, responses triggered in the elderly through fake news circulating on social networks and information transmitted by radio about fear of covid-19. The conclusion is that there is indeed an association between infodemic and symptoms of stress, depression and anxiety among older people. These findings may properly contribute to the implementation of coping strategies with positive impact on mental health of the elderly.