Page 34 - GHES-2-4

Global Health Economics and
Sustainability

PERSPECTIVE ARTICLE
How to minimize the impact of a pandemic on

depression in older adults in the future

Celso Silva * , Mónica Tomaz 2 , Liliana Sousa 3 , Rogério Ferreira 1 ,
1
and César Fonseca 4
1 1School of Health, Polytechnic Institute of Beja, Beja, Portugal
2 School of Management, Hospitality and Tourism, University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal
3 Local Health Unit, Alentejo Central, EPE, Évora, Portugal
4 Department of Nursing, University of Évora, Évora, Portugal

Abstract

Depression is a common mental illness that affects a significant number of older adults.
Recently, we saw a considerable increase in the prevalence of depression during
the COVID-19 pandemic. Studies have been able to discover many determinants of
pandemic-related depression, which will aid in defining health policies to mitigate
depressive symptoms during future pandemics. Thus, based on existing knowledge
of the key factors contributing to the development of depression among older adults
Academic editor: during the COVID-19 pandemic, our article aims to precisely reflect on and consider
Mihajlo Jakovljevic M.D. Ph.D. MAE health policies in need of development. We hope these perspectives can help reduce
the impact of future pandemics on the development of depressive symptoms.
*Corresponding author:
Celso Silva
(celso.silva@ipbeja.pt)
Keywords: Pandemic; Older adults; Depression; Future situation; Minimizing impact
Citation: Silva, C., Tomaz, M.,
Sousa, L., Ferreira, R. &
Fonseca, C. (2024). How to
minimize the impact of a pandemic
on depression in older adults in the 1. Introduction
future. Global Health Econ Sustain,
2(4):3193. Depression is a mental disorder that can manifest as persistent sadness, hopelessness,
https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.3193 pessimism, loss of pleasure or interest in previously enjoyable activities, and a depressed
Received: March 18, 2024 mood. As a diagnostic criterion, these symptoms must be present for most of the
day, almost every day, or for at least 2 weeks, with most episodes lasting much longer
Accepted: May 9, 2024
(American Psychiatric Association, 2014).
Published Online: September 23,
2024 As per the World Health Organization (WHO), depression is a common mental disorder,
and in the pre-COVID-19 period, it affected around 280 million people globally, an estimated
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article 10.4% of adults, affecting about 5.7% of people aged over 60 years (WHO, 2021).
distributed under the terms of the 1
Creative Commons Attribution The initial cases of the SARS-CoV-2 infection were reported by the WHO in
License, permitting distribution, December 2019; thus, it proposed that governments must take measures to minimize the
and reproduction in any medium, spread of the virus, including the implementation of social distancing and quarantine
provided the original work is
properly cited. measures (Ganesan et al., 2019; Islam et al., 2020).
Publisher’s Note: AccScience One of the consequences of the pandemic has been a considerable increase in the global
Publishing remains neutral with prevalence of depression by 28.1% (Santomauro et al., 2021). The older adult population
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional 1 New coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, responsible for COVID-19 (https://www.who.int/health-topics/
affiliations. coronavirus#tab=tab_1)

Volume 2 Issue 4 (2024) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.3193