Decreasing Loneliness in Older Adults

NCT01842984 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 300009673
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 74
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The purposes of this study are: (1) decrease loneliness and social isolation and increase social competence and social integration of older adults experiencing loneliness; (2) examine an intervention process grounded in a theoretical model that was developed in a previous study. The intervention process is tailored to the participants' barriers and abilities, and includes up to 10 personal meetings with an activities counselor and several group meetings.

Conditions

Loneliness; Social Isolation

Keywords

Loneliness; Social isolation; Depression; Older adults; Social competence; Social integration

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Change in Loneliness

  Loneliness will be assessed via several measures: (a) Frequency of loneliness will be measured via one item ("How often would you say you feel lonely?"; (Mullins, Woodland, \& Putnam, 1990) on a 6-point scale from "never" (1) to "several times an hour" (6); (b) The UCLA Loneliness Scale- 8 items (ULS-8; (Hays \& DiMatteo, 1987). Each item is rated on a 5-point scale from "not at all" (1) to "to a great extent" (5), with a higher score indicating more loneliness. Based on experience from another study (Cohen-Mansfield et al., 2013) one item ("I am unhappy being so withdrawn") was replaced with two items ("I feel physically distant from other people"; "I feel emotionally distant from other people).

  Participants will be assessed before and after the intervention, an expected average of 6 months

Study Arms (2)

I-SOCIAL intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in this group will have up to 10 personal meetings with activities counselors and several group meetings.

Behavioral: I-SOCIAL intervention

Control group

NO INTERVENTION

Participants in this group will not have meetings with the activities counselors, and will not take part in the group meetings.

Interventions

I-SOCIAL intervention BEHAVIORAL

The I-SOCIAL intervention is based on findings from Cohen-Mansfield and Parpura-Gill (2007), which highlighted the important role of barriers in contributing to loneliness in older persons. These barriers include a perceived lack of opportunities for social contacts, low social self-efficacy, and health and mobility difficulties. The intervention includes: (1) identifying the barriers for the specific person; (2) up to 10 meetings with an activities counselor. The meetings include discussions concerning options for social contacts and use of techniques and resources to tackle the barriers; and (3) group meetings of participants and the activities counselors in order to provide a concrete social event and as a venue to discuss barriers and ways to address them.

I-SOCIAL intervention

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 65 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• age 65 or over
• residing in the Tel Aviv region

You may not qualify if:

• having known mental illness including schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, and dementia

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Tel Aviv University: lead
• Ministry for Senior Citizens, Israel: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Tel-Aviv University

Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Social Isolation; Depression; Social Skills

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Social Behavior; Behavior; Behavioral Symptoms

Study Officials

• Jiska Cohen-Mansfiels, Professor

  Tel Aviv University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Professor, Department of Health Promotion, Director- The Minerva Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of the End of Life

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: April 22, 2013
• First Posted: April 30, 2013
• Study Start: March 1, 2013
• Primary Completion: December 1, 2016
• Study Completion: December 1, 2018
• Last Updated: October 31, 2019

Record last verified: 2019-10

Locations

IL (1)