Network analysis of symptoms of agoraphobia disorder in people over 65 years

The aim of this study is to conduct a network analysis of agoraphobia disorder symptoms (with or without panic) according to age and gender, in a representative sample of 555 people over 65 years of age in the Community of Madrid. The network was estimated using the InsingFit package that implements a procedure called eLasso. The results reveal differentiated networks for men and women, and for the age groups 65-74 and 75-84 years, finding a higher percentage of occurrence in women in both situations and symptoms of anxiety and reasons for fear. Women fear a greater number of situations, while men seem to have their fears more localized and centralized in situations related to transport and travel when travelling alone. These results may be of interest for designing interventions that address the symptoms and the most important, different and characteristic relationships among them according to age and gender.