Older people suffering long-term physical effects of cocooning, geriatrician warns
A big challenge in older adults is that when you stop exercising or don’t use your muscles, you can have a big difference in your mobility.
Many older people are suffering long-term physical effects from cocooning over the last 18 months, a leading geriatrician has warned.
Kirstyn James, who worked in Cork University Hospital (CUH) during the pandemic, said it is “very worrying” that some older people have not yet resumed their normal lives.
“We are seeing more frail older adults during our assessments,” she said.
“We are meeting people who have reported a big change in their mobility. A lot of that is to do with the huge lifestyle changes they have had to make since the pandemic started.”
Dr James said it is apparent that some older people have not resumed any normal activities and continue to lead sheltered lives.
In her experience, older people struggle with getting out of bed or crossing a room, while others have said the walks they can manage outside of the house are shorter than pre-Covid.
"It can be much harder to get back to where you were. It can take a lot longer to recover than the time it took to lose the mobility.”
Many HSE-provided exercises classes for older people have not yet reopened nor have specialist classes in some private gyms, she said.
“It really is a case of use it or lose it when it comes to your mobility.”
There has been a dedicated geriatric team in CUH emergency department during the pandemic, with staff from different areas working together.
“We, as geriatricians, know it is very important to look not just at medical conditions that are important in older age but to try and promote health and wellbeing in older adults,” she said.
“Assessing mobility is one of the ways that we do that.”
The team was the first in Europe to be recognised as having an ‘age-friendly system’ by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
Dr James has now published a mobility assessment video in the prestigious .
It includes mobility tests for older people which can alert healthcare staff to problems.
The video, available through the journal’s website and developed at CUH, is also suitable for older people or family members to learn from, said Dr James.
She said that geriatricians can then advise on maybe changing footwear or assessing if medication might be affecting balance.
She recommended that older people consider tai chi or chair-based exercises, even done at home.
“We would like to see a return to those sorts of [group] activities but only when it is safe to do so.”
She urged older people to do as much exercise and socialising as they are comfortable with.
“I think it is difficult to balance trying to protect people from a public health point of view. And then, as geriatricians, we are very concerned about older adults having declining mobility.”
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