The exponential increase of the older segment of the population is coinciding with the growing challenges of a digital society in different socio-cultural contexts. This exploratory study aims to analyze older adult perspectives of how smart technology influenced their meaning in life during the Covid-19 Public Health Emergency period, using qualitative research at a cross-national level. Three hundred and fifty-one community-dwelling older participants aged 65–87 years were included in the study. Participants were Italian, Mexican, Portuguese and Spanish. All the narratives went through a process of content analysis. Findings of content analysis produced six themes: Meaningful relations, rewarding activities, spirituality, health and safety-related support, self-growth, and physical activity. Smart technology was important in promoting significant relations for Mexican older adults (71.3%), rewarding activities for Portuguese older adults (57.1%), spirituality for Spanish older participants (71.6%), and physical activity for Italian older adults (29.5%). This study indicated that smart technology during the Health Emergency period was important for the meaning in life of older populations, mostly by facilitating meaningful relations, rewarding activities and spirituality. Future interventions with older adults during pandemic periods should consider the diversity of themes associated with increasing older adult well-being, from a cross-cultural perspective.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the access of older adults to health services. The two objectives of this study are understanding the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on older adults’ access to health services and exploring how health service accessibility during the pandemic influenced older adults’ mental health and self-reported changes in behavior. This study included 346 older adults. Content analysis produced five themes: (1) decreased physical accessibility to health care providers (78%); (2) increased use of online health services and other virtual health care (69%); (3) growth in the online prescription of medication (67%); (4) difficulty obtaining information and accessing non-communicable disease and mental health indicators (65%); and (5) postponement of medical specialist consultations (51%). Regarding mental health, three themes emerged: (1) increased symptoms of anxiety, distress, and depression (89%); (2) the experience of traumatic situations (61%); and (3) the augmented use of alcohol or drugs (56%). Finally, the following changes in behavior were indicated: (1) frustrated behavior (92%); (2) emotional explosions (79%); and (3) changes in sleeping and eating behaviors (43%). Access to health services may have influenced the mental health and behavior of older adults, hence interventions in a pandemic must address their interactions with health services, their needs, and their well-being.

Objectives: This research explores a structural model of predictors of subjective well-being (SWB) in a community-dwelling older population. Methods: A community sample of 1258 older adults was assessed regarding SWB, sense of coherence and sociodemographic, lifestyle, and health-related characteristics. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate a structural model of the self-reported SWB, comprising sense of coherence, sociodemographic characteristics (age, sex, marital status, household, professional status, educational level, social support, living setting, and self-reported spirituality), as well as lifestyle and health-related characteristics (leisure, physical activity, recent disease, perceived health, and medication). Results: Self-reported spirituality (b ¼ 0.395; p < 0.001), sense of coherence (b ¼ 0.128; p < 0.001), social support (b ¼ 0.089; p ¼ 0.008), living setting (b ¼ 0.083; p < 0.001), household (b ¼ 0.072; p < 0.001), perceived health (b ¼ 0.049; p ¼ 0.007) and medication (b ¼ 0.015; p ¼ 0.033) predicted SWB. The variables accounted for 82.9% of the variability of SWB. Conclusion: Self-reported spirituality is the strongest predictor of SWB. Other predictors are sense of coherence, social support, living setting, household, perceived health, and medication. Results emphasize that health care approaches may benefit from clearly understanding SWB and its predictors, as essential for promoting older adults' health and well-being.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT

Objectives: Positive and negative affect is a relevant facet of well-being for community-dwelling older adults. This article reports the validation of the Positive And Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), by means of confirmatory analysis.Methods: A community-dwelling cross-national sample of 1291 older adults aged 75 years-old and older voluntarily completed the PANAS. The relations between variables in the model were evaluated using structural equation based on maximum likelihood estimation. The distributional properties, cross-sample stability, internal reliability, and convergent, external and criterion-related validities of the PANAS were analyzed and found to be psychometrically acceptable.Results: Our results outcomes support for the hypothesis that the PANAS is valid and reliable in the two 10-item mood scales, hence fit for use with older adults, within a culturally diverse view of well-being.Conclusions: The psychometric properties of the PANAS are satisfactory in this older sample, and according to those of its early version. Taken together, these results substantiate the validity of this measure when applied to an older community cross-national population.