Extending understanding of grandchild care on feelings of loneliness and isolation in later life
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Gerontologie+Geriatrie Reviews Z Gerontol Geriat https://doi.org/10.1007/s00391-020-01776-5 Received: 11 June 2020 Accepted: 5 August 2020
Eleanor Quirke · Hans-Helmut König · André Hajek
© Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature 2020
Extending understanding of grandchild care on feelings of loneliness and isolation in later life
Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, University Medical Center HamburgEppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
A literature review Viewpoint Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is well-recognized to particularly affect older persons, with the case fatality rate for COVID-19 increasing considerably with age. Social distancing measures significantly reduce the risk of being infected with COVID-19. In view of this, older persons in particular have been strongly encouraged to self-isolate, and to even avoid contact with their family members. It is increasingly recognized that whilst social distancing measures are effective in reducing the spread of the virus, reduced social contact may have implications for individuals’ mental health and well-being. In addition, while more stringent social distancing measures are slowly lifted across Europe, vulnerable groups, including older persons, continue to be encouraged to stay home and reduce their social contacts. Older persons may therefore have a differential experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, and whilst also shouldering a higher burden of mortality, may also shoulder a disproportional burden of negative social and mental health implications. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing body of literature had explored loneliness and social isolation among older individuals, identifying clear links between loneliness, social isolation and health outcomes [1–4]. Social activities in later life that fostered social interaction had been emphasized
as a key tenet of active and successful ageing frameworks. As part of this, the role of grandparenting and the provision of auxiliary grandchild care has been analyzed. Beyond the benefits that grandchild caregiving extends to grandchildren themselves, it has been theorized that undertaking grandchild care may also positively shape a grandparent’s social relations. This theory has been underscored to an extent by some scientific research in recent years. We present findings of our comprehensive review of existing literature that was identified via search of PubMed and Google Scholar, using the keywords “auxiliary care”, “grandchild care”, “loneliness”, “social isolation”, “social exclusion” and “social network size”. A hand search of the reference lists of identified articles was also conducted. A second person was involved in determining the search strategy and also critically reviewed the results of the literature search. Two recent studies drawing on the German Ageing Survey found that undertaking grandchild caregiving was associated with an increase in the grandparent’s social network size [5, 6], suggesting that providing grandchild care generates additional opportunities to make
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