Depression and Life Satisfaction Among Korean Older Adults during COVID-19: Examining Awareness and Use of Community Mental Health Welfare Centers As Mediating Factors

Background and Purpose: Korean life satisfaction is significantly lower than that of other countries with Korean older adults reporting the lowest levels of life satisfaction. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most older adults have experienced increased social isolation to restrict their contraction of the virus - putting them at a higher risk of depression. Access to mental health services can have a positive impact on quality of life for people with depression, however, researchers have yet to examine the mediating effect of awareness and use of mental health welfare centers. The purpose of this study is 1) to explore the connection between depression and life satisfaction among Korean older adults, and 2) to examine whether awareness and use of mental health welfare centers might function as a mediator between depression and life satisfaction among Korean older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: This study used secondary data from the 2020 Seoul Welfare Survey which was conducted in Seoul, Korea from November 2020 to January 2021. The 2020 Seoul Welfare Survey consisted of one-on-one interviews in the participants’ homes. Among the total sample, the current analysis only included the 545 Korean older adults who were 65 and over. The current analyses included correlations, multivariate linear regression, and Hayes PROCESS macro.

Results: Among the 545 Korean older adults, 9.6% (n = 52) used community mental health centers during the COVID-19 period. Over half of the older adult participants indicated that they were unaware of the existence of community mental health centers. Results of the multiple linear regression analysis showed that after controlling for socio-demographic factors, depression was significantly associated with life satisfaction among older adults during the COVID-19 period. The mediation analysis indicated that use of community mental health centers did not emerge as a mediator during the pandemic. But, with the 95% bootstrap confidence interval for the indirect effect not containing zero (.07, .29), the mediating effect of awareness of mental health service centers was evident (B [SE] = .15 [.06]).

Conclusions and Implications: The findings suggest participants may feel depressed while positively perceiving their life satisfaction. The mediation results imply that increased awareness of mental health centers may have a positive effect on the life satisfaction of Korean older adults who suffer from depression. As such, a public awareness campaign to improve the visibility of the mental health centers may be beneficial for Korean older adults. Advocacy efforts to reduce the stigma of mental health problems in order to increase use of mental health centers are included in long-term goals.