The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social isolation in older adults with vision loss or hearing loss

Abstract

This is a dataset from a project investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on older adults with sensory loss. Three groups of older adults -- vision loss (VL, N = 13), hearing loss (HL, N = 24), and controls (CTL, N = 18) -- were recruited from the Twin Cities Minnesota community (mean age = 68.18, min = 57, max = 80). Participants were interviewed every 5 to 7 weeks from the end of April to the end of October using the same set of questions. The initial interview at the end of April included retrospective responses to questions regarding participants’ status at the beginning of March, prior to pandemic restrictions, and the beginning of April, after the onset of pandemic restrictions. The survey questions addressed (1) demographic and health information, (2) average number of in-person and electronic social contacts per week, (3) sense of loneliness, (4) accessibility of daily services such as grocery shopping, (5) mental health, (6) worry levels about COVID infection, and (7) impact on daily activities. The dataset is released for sharing and replication purposes.