Help provided by community-dwelling older adults in the Netherlands during the COVID-19 pandemic

The global expansion of the COVID-19 virus led many countries, including the Netherlands, to implement socially restrictive measures to protect vulnerable groups from the virus, without considering negative consequences. Older individuals show large differences in vulnerability, but were defined as vulnerable, overlooking their strengths and resilience. We aim to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictive measures on provided help by community dwelling older individuals in the Netherlands; and (2) to examine the cross-sectional effect of social capital and mental wellbeing on the provided help.

This cross-sectional study utilized data from the Impact Corona study from October/November 2020. Community-dwelling older individuals in the Netherlands, aged 65 years and older, completed an online questionnaire. Providing help was measured by 'already providing help' to at least one of the defined subgroups for the question 'To what extent are you willing to offer help to (group) during the covid-19 pandemic?'. Followed by the question of what type of assistance this was, such as grocery shopping. Social capital was measured by the amount of social contact, trust in people in general, knowing sufficient people who could provide help and provided help in the neighborhood. Mental wellbeing was measured by questions about feeling more anxious, stressed and staying home during the pandemic. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses.

7,616 Older individuals participated in this study. About one third (32.9%) of the older individuals provided help during the COVID-19 pandemic (56.2% female, 73.4% multi-person household, 60.4% in good health). The majority provided the same (60.9%) or more (29.7%) help than before the pandemic and had a higher social capital, and a better mental wellbeing, compared to older individuals who did not provide help.

Overall, a third of the older individuals still provided help and remained socially involved during the pandemic. They had high social capital and mental well-being, supporting their helping behavior. When developing future restrictive measures, a distinction based on health and vulnerability should be prioritized over one based primarily on age, to prevent the emergence of a different form of vulnerability.