Impacts on social connections and wellbeing of COVID-19 policies in the Older Population: CFAS cohort Over 75s (OPPO)

最近因COVID-19冠状病毒爆发而采取的社交距离措施将对老年人的身心健康产生深远影响。与此同时，在与家庭成员的非正式接触和在线健康咨询以及日常生活功能方面，在线通信的使用也发生了根本性的变化。认知功能和老龄化研究II （CFAS II）是一项具有人口代表性的纵向研究，调查了英格兰三个不同地区老年人的健康、福祉、认知、社会网络以及健康和社会护理的使用情况，包括农村地区和社会剥夺程度高的地区。CFAS II始于2009年，但最近完成了对参与者样本的10年随访访谈（2018-2019）。在这次后续访谈中，收集了对该项目感兴趣的指标，如幸福感、社交网络、在线交流和服务获取。研究小组目前正在进行新一轮访谈，以便能够直接评估社会距离措施对这一弱势群体的心理健康影响，以及已经发生的通信和社交网络的任何变化。本项目的目的是分析这些影响，并开展进一步的随访访谈，以调查COVID-19大流行对这一人群的长期影响；利用从前几轮研究中收集的大量数据。目的：1)估计COVID-19大流行对心理健康、福祉和一般健康的直接和持续影响；2)估计社会关怀的使用情况和从他人（家庭/邻居等）获得的支持，以及在大流行期间这种情况的变化情况。3)通过比较前几波的数据来检查手机、智能手机和社交网络使用情况的变化，探索危机带来的新使用情况，以及这种情况是否会持续下去。

The recent introduction of social distancing measures due to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak will have had a profound impact on older people's physical and mental health. At the same time there has been a fundamental shift in the use of online communication, both for informal contact with family members and online health consultations as well as for the functions of everyday life.The Cognitive Function and Ageing Study II (CFAS II) is a population representative longitudinal study examining the health, wellbeing, cognition, social networks and health and social care usage of older people in three diverse geographies of England including rural areas and those with high social deprivation. CFAS II began in 2009 but has recently completed (2018-2019) a 10-year follow-up interview with a sample of participants. During this follow up interview, measures of interest to this project, such as wellbeing, social networks, online communication and access to services were gathered. The research team are currently undertaking a new wave of interviews that will enable direct assessment of the mental health impact that social distancing measures have had on this vulnerable group along with any changes to communications and social networks that have occurred.The aim of this project is to analyse these effects, and to undertake a further follow-up interview to investigate the longer term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on this group of people; utilising extensive data collected from previous waves of the study.Aims:1) To estimate the immediate and persistent impacts on mental health, wellbeing, general health of the COVID-19 pandemic;2) To estimate social care usage and support received from others (family/neighbours etc.) and how this has changed over the course of the pandemic.3) To examine changes in mobile, smartphone and social network usage by comparing data from previous waves, exploring to what extent there has been new usage as a result of the crisis and if this has persisted.