Decreasing Loneliness in Older Adults

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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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.

Official Title
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Increasing Social Competence and Social Integration of Older Adults Experiencing Loneliness

Conditions
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Loneliness, Social Isolation

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: I-SOCIAL intervention


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: age 65 or over residing in the Tel Aviv region Exclusion Criteria: having known mental illness including schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, and dementia

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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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

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


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: I-SOCIAL intervention<br>Participants in this group will have up to 10 personal meetings with activities counselors and several group meetings. | Behavioral: I-SOCIAL intervention<br>* 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.<br>|
| No Intervention: Control group<br>Participants in this group will not have meetings with the activities counselors, and will not take part in the group meetings. | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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 | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Loneliness, Social isolation, Depression, Older adults, Social competence, Social integration