New research article: A hundred days in confinement: Doing, being, becoming, and belonging among older people in Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic

By maria [dot] lofstedt [at] med [dot] lu [dot] se (Maria Löfstedt) - published 11 April 2022

a woman gets help with her cell phone — Photo by Georg Arthur Pflueger on Unsplash.

This study explains how older people experienced and managed everyday life during the first 100 days of the coronavirus pandemic. The findings showed how doing was adapted and changed, how the pandemic gave opportunities for being and appreciating the moment, but that possibilities for becoming and developing were severely restricted, and the sense of belonging was disrupted, which seemed to influence well-being.

Participants expressed how they adapted their occupations to the restrictions, but also how their doing affected their well-being, further development, and opportunities for social interactions.

Conclusion: The participants, who were older people without any specific diagnosis, reflected upon their daily occupations during an unrehearsed natural experiment when, more than anything else, the social environmental circumstances changed.

Foundation to further research on understanding people’s individual needs

The analysis elucidates how doing, being, becoming, and belonging is embedded in people’s lives. The study can serve as a foundation to further research on understanding people’s individual needs as occupational beings.

A qualitative cross-sectional study with a deductive analytical approach was selected to guide the study. Data were elicited through semi-structured interviews in June 2020 as part of a longitudinal research project on consequences of the pandemic for older adults’ everyday life and well-being (Fristedt et al., 2021).

To the full article