Evaluating Quebec's Red-Cross Intervention

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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With the COVID-19 pandemic, elderly people (EP) living at home have seen their health deteriorated, thus increasing their needs in support and care. Indeed, while it was estimated that before the pandemic120 000 unattended living at home EP required care and services (taking bath, access to medication and food, etc.), the number doubled after COVID-19. Therefore, the waiting list for socio-medical services for unattended vulnerable clientele without a family doctor grew from 1300 to 1715 EP in a couple of months during the pandemic. With these numbers, it becomes clear that an intervention is needed. Truly, the Institut National d'Excellence en Santé et Services Sociaux (INESSS) concludes that it was pivotal to first identify the most vulnerable EP and second re-orient them according to their needs. Thus the principal investigator developed the Évaluation et orientation SOcio-GÉRiatrique (ESOGER) questionnaire available on a secure digital platform enabling both a rapid evaluation and intervention to asses EP needs and provide the adequate ressources. The principal investigator's previous research has demonstrated that ESOGER is one of the rare clinical tools of first contact in telehealth while being global, multidimensional, and equitable. Hence, the principal investigator hypothesizes that ESOGER is a clinical tool enabling first line care by the Red-Cross to vulnerable EP without a family doctor, which will lead to an improvement in their health, autonomy and quality of life. Moreover, the principal investigator also hypothesizes that for a better deployment, the tool needs to be adapted to Red-Cross' need and EP service providers.

Official Title
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Seniors Waiting for Medico-social Care at the CIUSSS-Centre-Sud de l'île de Montréal's Territory Waiting List (GACO) : Evaluation of the Intervention of a New Partner - Quebec's Red-Cross

Conditions
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Social Isolation, Aging

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: Recommendations and re-orientation towards appropriate physical, mental, and social health ressources


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Aged 65 and more Living at home Be registered at the waiting list of GACO at the CIUSSS-Centre-Sud de l'île-de-Montréal (CCSMTL) Exclusion Criteria: Principal address outside of the CCSMTL territory Participate at another clinical trial, to avoid interferences Not understand written or spoken French or English, questionnaires are only available in French and English.

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 65 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Other
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Group intervention - questionnaire and recommendations<br>The intervention group will take the ESOGER questionnaire at month 0 and month 3 ( beginning and end) and receive recommendations following their needs. | Other: Recommendations and re-orientation towards appropriate physical, mental, and social health ressources<br>* Resources recommendations and interventions curated to the needs of the EP such as refering them to a social activity for socially isolated EP.<br>|
| No Intervention: Group control - questionnaire without recommendations<br>The participants will only take the ESOGER questionnaire at month 0 and month 3 without recommendations. | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| COVID-19 symptoms assessed through a questionnaire | presence or not of fever, cough, and shortness of breath (binary question) | 3 months | 
| psychological fraility | Anxiety verbal analogic scale, score from 0= no anxiety to 10= extremly anxious | 3 months | 
| Social health measured through a questionnaire | Issues related to medication and food delivery and access to home care. Presence or not of a shortage in food, medication and home care ( binary question) | 3 months | 
| Socio-economic characteristics | Presence or not of socio-economic problems (binary questions) | 3 months | 
| Participant's Quality of life | Measured by the EQ-5D scale with two parts, scale 1 score from 1= no problem to 5 ( sever health problems) and scale 2 visual analogic scale score from 0= worst possible health to 100= best possible health. | 3 months | 
| Autonomy | ADL scale score from 0= very dependent to 6= very independent and IADL scale score 0= not autonomous 4= autonomous. | 3 months | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Caregiver burden | Based on Zarit scale, score from 0= no burden to 16= high caregiver burden | 3 months |