When it comes to mental and emotional health, older adults in the United States are showing resilience and persevering despite struggles with loneliness and isolation, the latest self-reported results in an ongoing study suggest.
About half as many older adults now report they are very happy or extremely happy, and an increasing number report occasional feelings of depression or isolation.
Other interesting findings from the responses:—About one-fifth of older adults in the study said they’d had no in-person contact with family and friends outside their own households during the pandemic.
—At the same time, at least half of older adults “have not reduced their frequency of in-person contact with friends and family not living with them" since the pandemic began.
“There’s a lot we don’t appreciate about how well people do cope with age,” said Hawkley, who specializes in researching loneliness and social isolation in older adults.