Commonalities and Specificities in Cognitive and Psychosocial Effects in the Elderly Population During COVID-19 Lockdown in Inúbia Paulista-SP and Ribeirão Preto-SP, Brazil, in 2020-2022

Abstract

On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the outbreak of a new coronavirus (named COVID-19) constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, the highest level of alert from the Organization according to the International Health Regulations (WHO website) 1,2 . This decision aimed to enhance global coordination, cooperation, and solidarity to stop the spread of the virus.

Thus, the WHO declared the pandemic of the new coronavirus on March 11, 2020, by which point the disease had already reached 114 countries and infected 118,000 people, with 4,291 deaths 3 .

It is important to highlight that the contemporary, globalized world is characterized (from an integration perspective) by increased flows of people, goods, capital, and services; technical networks of spaces are increasingly compressed by time, that is: biopolitics, a term used by philosopher Paul Preciado, which indicates that the same globalization that integrates ends up fragmenting and producing selectivity in the most present flows 4,5 .

In addition to this, nosophobia or the fear of contracting the disease adds to the situation, affecting both healthcare professionals and the general population, particularly those over 60 years old, characterized by a recurrent and persistent fear, unlike hypochondria, which not only presents physical symptoms but also cognitive, emotional, and behavioral symptoms, with a sense of insecurity in many aspects of life, from individual to collective perspectives, from the everyday functioning of society to changes in interpersonal relationships 6 .