(The Canadian Press)

By David Opinko

Nearly 200,000 people took part in questionnaire

Stats Canada: Canadians on how COVID-19 is impacting their health, finances, lifestyle

Apr 23, 2020 | 2:21 PM

OTTAWA, ONT – A new survey from Stats Canada shows that older Canadians are more concerned about their health during the COVID-19 pandemic while those who are younger feel the same about their social lives.

Nearly 200,000 people took part in an online questionnaire on Stats Canada’s website from April 3-9 about the current public health crisis. It is important to note that this is not the agency’s normal method of obtaining responses.

“Crowdsourcing data are not collected under a sample design using a probability-based sampling. As a result, the findings reported below cannot be applied to the overall Canadian population,” reads a disclaimer from Stats Canada.

About 80 per cent of all participants said they were “very” or “extremely” anxious about the health care system being overloaded.

Nearly 60 per cent of people aged 65 or older reported to be very or extremely concerned about their own health, compared to 23 per cent of those aged 15 to 24, and 28 per cent of those aged 25 to 34.

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For respondents in the 15 to 24 demographic, 41 per cent said they were concerned about stress from confinement in their home, while 30 per cent in the 55+ group felt the same way.

10 per cent of women and six per cent of men reported that they were concerned about the possibility of violence in their homes.

When it comes to finances, the younger population was more likely to be concerned about their ability to meet their financial obligations. This opinion was shared by nearly half of those aged 15 to 24, compared to 34 per cent of all participants.

The survey also found that seniors said in much larger numbers that they had not been to a grocery store or pharmacy in the past week.

Proportion of crowdsourcing participants who were very or extremely worried about certain COVID-19 related issues, by age group. (Statistics Canada)

Proportion of crowdsourcing participants who reported being very or extremely anxious about the possibility of violence in the house, by age group and by gender. (Statistics Canada)

Proportion of crowdsourcing participants who did not go to the grocery store or a drugstore in the week preceding the survey, by age group and by gender. (Statistics Canada)