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BACKGROUND: Long COVID is a severe health problem that is associated with poorer Quality of Life (QoL) in older adults. This study was to investigate the long COVID and QoL among older adults and examine the relationship between long COVID and QoL.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was employed with a total of 220 older adults. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, and independent t-test were used.
RESULTS: The prevalence of long COVID was 57.7%. Older adults' QoL was at a moderate level. They had 53.6 % anxiety and fear, 43.6% fatigue/dyspnea, 43.2 allergy, 30.5% loss of appetite, 24.5% brain fog, 21.4 flu/fever, 20.9% memory impairment, 12.3% palpitation, 1.36% SLE, etc. Most of them had more than two conditions. The long COVID had an inverse effect on the QoL (p<0.001, r -0.295). Mean differences between Long COVID of males and females, ages (categorized as younger than 65 and older than 65), and vaccination and non-vaccination were different. Mean differences between QoL of males and females, ages (categorized as younger than 65 and older than 65), and vaccination and non-vaccination were also were not different. However, the long COVID impacted older adults with hospitalization than with non-hospitalization (p<0.001). The QoL with non-hospitalization was higher than those with hospitalization (p<0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: Older adults were at risk of long-COVID and QoL impairment. Nurses can play a crucial role in collaborating with the multidisciplinary team to create a health care services program to prevent COVID-19, and improving their QoL.
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