Memories and social representations of COVID-19: fear and its repercussions in the daily lives of older adults

Abstract

Studying Social Representations (SR) and the memories of older adults in contexts of adversity, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, is relevant, as such representations influence individual thought and behavior, impacting their ways of caring for health and living in society. From this perspective, the present study aimed to understand the memories and SR of older adults regarding the repercussions of COVID-19 in their daily lives. This is an exploratory, descriptive study with a qualitative approach, theoretically grounded in the Theory of Social Representations. The study was conducted in a Primary Health Care Unit in a municipality in the interior of Bahia, Brazil, with 22 older adults with preserved communication and cognition. Data were collected through a sociodemographic questionnaire and semi structured interview and analyzed using the Iramuteq software for coding and Bardin’s content analysis. A predominance of women was observed (82.0%), aged between 60 and 75 years (54.5%), without a partner (54.5%), with declared religion (100.0%), living with family members (63.6%), and with low schooling (77.3%). Textual analysis revealed the category “Fear as the structuring core of the social representations of the pandemic”. Fear was related to the risk of illness and death, social distancing, changes in care practices and ambivalences surrounding vaccination. The narratives indicate that such perceptions influenced protective behaviors, isolation and reconfiguration of social relationships, with repercussions that, in some cases, remain in the post-pandemic period. It is concluded that fear constituted an organizing element of the memories and SR of older adults about the pandemic, highlighting the importance of communication and care strategies sensitive to subjective dimensions in contexts of health crises.