Questionnaire Reveals Minnesotan's Greatest Concerns Regarding COVID-19

In March, AARP Minnesota conducted a survey to understand Minnesotan's top concerns when it comes to COVID-19 and the current pandemic. AARP Minnesota received 371 responses from e-activists who answered questions related to health, finances and community.

The questionnaire revealed that the greatest concern among Minnesotans is personal and family health and well-being (24%). This was followed by the concerns of negative community behavior (15%) and economic scarcity (12%). Other responses included public health (11%), personal finances (9%) and social isolation/mental health (8%). When asked for examples of positive occurrences they have experienced during the pandemic, seeing others do good was the most common response (29%). Connecting with family and friends was another experience that Minnesotans reported feeling overall positively about (23%).

In relation to community-based questions, over 80% of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that people in their communities are taking social distancing steps seriously to slow down the spread of the disease. An overwhelming majority (93%) think that it is important to give back to our communities during this difficult time.

Personal finance is an area of concern for individuals and families all over the country since the COVID-19 outbreak, and 40% of respondents claim that the pandemic has had a major impact on their personal finances. Slightly more than half said the virus outbreak hadn’t yet had a major effect on their finances. While finances are a growing concern for people all over the state of Minnesota, the survey found that 84% of members are still able to access necessities during the outbreak.

This current crisis has also been seen to cause more social isolation, which can have a negative impact on physical and mental health. About 29% of respondents have not found it difficult to cope with stress, worry, and isolation that has been caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Unfortunately, scammers and fraudsters are using COVID-19 as another way to steal money and personal information from people online, on the phone or through mail. Over half of the respondents said they’d like to have more information about how to protect themselves from scams and fraud related to the outbreak.

For information, resources, and tools for Minnesotans during the COVID-19 outbreak, visit https://states.aarp.org/minnesota/mncovid19.