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Elderly Women During COVID 19

Multiple Disadvantages and Deprivations

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Handbook of Aging, Health and Public Policy

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Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic is a health crisis of which elderly constituted a high-risk group for severe illness and mortality. Restricted access to medications and health facilities due to COVID-19 has further influenced their physical and mental health status. Elderly face social isolation in normal circumstances, and COVID-19 has amplified this isolation. Social networking among elderly has been disrupted immensely with the apt advisory on social distancing by the government. Regular exposure to news/reports on COVID-19 could have triggered anxiety, mood, and sleep disturbances. Globally, there are more elderly women living alone on low incomes – putting them at higher risk of economic insecurity. Elderly women carry out significantly higher care work than men. Care responsibility at healthcare institutions or at home being predominantly managed by women imposes an additional burden on them, and it got further aggravated during home quarantines. Older women are dangerously more vulnerable to develo** long COVID which can potentially hamper their quality of life. The impact on elderly women spans economic (earning less and saving less), health, unpaid care work, elder abuses and gender-based violence, etc. This chapter explores implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on physical, mental, and psychological health of elderly women.

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The author declares no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this chapter.

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  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India

    Renu Tyagi

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  1. Renu Tyagi
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Correspondence to Renu Tyagi .

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  1. University, Sambalpur University, Sambalpur, India

    Tattwamasi Paltasingh

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Tyagi, R. (2023). Elderly Women During COVID 19. In: Handbook of Aging, Health and Public Policy. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1914-4_183-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1914-4_183-1

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