==== Front
Innov Aging
Innov Aging
innovateage
Innovation in Aging
2399-5300 Oxford University Press US 

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.3420
igaa057.3420
Abstracts
Session 10500 (Late Breaking Poster)
COVID-19 Pandemic
AcademicSubjects/SOC02600
Age Variations in Perceived COVID-19 Threats, Negative Impacts, and Associations with Well-Being
Gruenewald Tara 1 Ong Anthony 2 Zahn Danielle 1 1 
Chapman University, Orange, California, United States
2 
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States
2020 
16 12 2020 
16 12 2020 
4 Suppl 1 Program Abstracts from The GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting “Turning 75: Why Age Matters”933 933
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.2020This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented threat to individual and public health, psychosocial, and economic well-being, although COVID-19 threats and impacts may vary by age and other demographic characteristics. Although greater age is a risk factor for greater COVID-19 disease severity, we know little about the association between age and perceived and experienced COVID-19 threats and their association to well-being. These associations were examined in an ongoing 3-wave investigation of over 1,700 U.S. adults (age 18-89; 53.1% female). Wave 1 analyses indicate no significant age variation in perceived threat of COVID-19 infection, with older and younger individuals reporting similar levels of COVID-19 infection threat. However, greater age was associated with lower perceived negative impact on financial and needed resources (r=-.10**), lower perceptions of COVID-19 induced harm to mental well-being (r=-.17**), and more favorable well-being profiles. Greater perceived COVID-19 threat and negative impact on resources and well-being were linked to greater feelings of stress (β’s=.45 to .68***), loneliness (β’s=.24 to .49***), social well-being (β’s=-.19 to -.36***), and poor sleep quality (β’s=.34 to .51***). These associations did not vary with age with the exception that older individuals showed stronger links between COVID-19 threat and impacts and poorer sleep quality. Ongoing analyses are examining whether these associations persist over time. Despite older adults’ greater risk of COVID-19 disease severity and mortality, older age did not appear to be linked to greater perceived COVID-19 threat or impacts, nor linkages to ill-being, with the possible exception of potential greater vulnerability to poor sleep quality.