Putting Life in Years (PLINY): Telephone Friendship Groups Research Study

Not Applicable

Terminated

Conditions: Loneliness
Self Efficacy

Interventions: Other: Telephone Friendship groups

Registration Number: NCT01754753

Lead Sponsor: University of Sheffield

Brief Summary: The National Institute for Health Research commissioned this research with the following research question: "What is the relative effectiveness and cost effectiveness of home based support programmes in improving the mental wellbeing of older people living in their own homes?"

The project will evaluate whether telephone friendship groups, delivered by the voluntary sector over the telephone, can improve the mental wellbeing of older people aged 75 or over.

The research will also:

1. Identify the psychosocial and environmental factors, as well as implementation issues that may mediate or modify the effectiveness of the intervention using qualitative methods. This will include examining: 1.1. Assess voluntary sector readiness to take forward new forms of services; 1.2. The best modes of delivery of telephone support/friendship; 1.3. Assess how volunteers (facilitators) can be supported and retained; and, 1.4. The extent to which fidelity of the intervention is maintained within and across the participating organisations.

2. Determine if there is any lasting impact upon mental wellbeing by repeat measurement with all participants 12 months following baseline measurement

3. Examine whether there is any significant improvement on the physical dimension of the SF-36 at 6 months and 12 months, following baseline measure, for the intervention arm compared with usual care.

4. Measure the extent of use of health and social care, and community facilities by participants over time to determine whether the intervention is cost effective compared with usual care.

Detailed Description: Background and study aims:

People are living longer and many experience a good old age. Unfortunately longer life is not always accompanied by health and wellbeing. Older people can become lonely, isolated and unhappy as a result of a whole number of factors such as diminished physical abilities and bereavement.

Our research programme is examining how people aged 75 years and over can be helped to retain wellbeing and not feel unhappy due to feelings of loneliness and isolation. It is examining the possible benefits of group friendship over the telephone. Telephone befriending services are usually provided through the voluntary sector and are available in a number of locations. Befriending can take place on a one-to-one basis or through small groups of people linked together by telephone (teleconferencing). A small amount of research has already been conducted into telephone befriending. It appears to provide benefit but intevestigators need evidence from more people who have experienced befriending by telephone to be able to make clear statements about whether it should be recommended.

What does the study involve? To ensure that the research is thorough investigators want to recruit and involve 248 older people aged 75 years and over who live in Sheffield. It will take us over a year to recruit the number of older people investigators need as the befriending services can only accommodate a certain number of people at any one time.

The main method of inviting people to participate in the research is through letters of invitation from primary care. However investigators are also using other ways to get the information to those who might be interested such as giving talks at community venues and asking health and social care professionals to identify people who they think might benefit.

Everyone who has volunteered and is eligible to take part is randomly allocated to one of two groups. Not everyone will receive the research intervention (telephone friendship). Everyone is then asked questions about their wellbeing and health when they first meet a researcher and once again six months later. The investigators will compare the results from responses collected at the start of the study with the results collected six months later. The investigators will look to see whether those involved in telephone friendship groups feel happier about their lives compared with the group who were allocated to help in the research by answering questions only. To find out whether there might be any lasting benefit investigators will then ask all participants the same questions for a final time about 12 months after the start.

Those people allocated to receive telephone friendship will firstly receive up to six one-to-one calls from a trained and Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checked Age UK Sheffield volunteer. The volunteer will talk to the participant for approximate 20 minutes and introduce them to the idea of group discussions over the telephone. They will then be invited to join a telephone friendship group with around six to seven other people. The friendship group then talk once a week for about one hour for 12 weeks with the group being assisted by an Age UK Sheffield volunteer.

As telephone friendship/ befriending services are relatively new, the investigators will look to see how they are being delivered and how people experience the service by talking with a small number of people have participated in the telephone friendship group. The investigators will also interview the Age UK Sheffield volunteers to find out if the telephone friendship service delivered to older people was as the investigators intended.

Older people are also helping us with the management of the study and continue to give their views on the progress of the project and any information that is being prepared. This is helping the researchers to ensure that what investigators ask people to do and any written material produced can be easily understood and meets the needs and expectations of those who are invited to take part.

Where is the study run from? The study is being organized by the University of Sheffield in partnership with Age UK and Community Network.

When is study starting and how long is it expected to run for? The study started on 1 October 2012 with invitations to join the study starting in June 2012 and continuing until May 2013. The study will run until December 2014 to enable us to follow-up participants, analyze the results and write a report of our findings.

Who is funding the study? National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Public Health Research programme.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: TERMINATED

Sex: All

Target Recruitment: 157

Inclusion Criteria

Aged 75 years or over
Good cognitive function, defined as Six Cognitive Impairment Test Brooke P, Bullock R, 1999) score of 7 or under;
Living independently (including those who are co-resident with others) or in sheltered/ extra care housing;
Able to understand and converse in English.

Exclusion Criteria

Aged 74 years or younger
6CIT score of 8 or more
In residential/ nursing care homes
Unable to understand and converse in English
Unable to converse on the telephone with assertive technology 6. Already receiving a telephone intervention

Study & Design

Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL

Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Telephone friendship groups	Telephone Friendship groups	Participants allocated to telephone friendship groups will take part in 12 weekly group telephone discussions. The participant will be called, by a trained Age UK Sheffield volunteer, in their own home. The group discussions will take place for about an hour each week and involve between 6-8 participants. Participants will be introduced to weekly group calls by the volunteer who will call each participant individually for around 20 minutes each week for up to six weeks before the group is established. The group may have a particular focus or talk about different topics each week. The individual participants are joined together through a teleconferencing system (provided by Community Network).

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
SF-36 Mental Health Dimension	SF36 at 6 months	The Short Form 36 Health Survey Questionnaire (SF-36) is a 36 item scale, which measures eight domains of health status: physical functioning (10 items); physical role limitations (four items); bodily pain (two items); general health perceptions (five items); energy/vitality (four items); social functioning (two items); emotional role limitations (three items) and mental health (five items). A scoring algorithm is used to convert the raw scores into the eight dimensions listed above. The scores are transformed to range from zero where the respondent has the worst possible health to 100 where the respondent is in the best possible health.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)	PHQ-9 at 6 months	The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9 is the major depressive disorder (MDD) module of the full PHQ. It scores each of the 9 DSM criteria of MDD as "0" (not at all) to "3" (nearly every day), providing a 0-27 severity score. Higher scores indicate better outcome.
De Jong Loneliness Scale	De Jong at 6 months	The de Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale score is a measuring instrument for loneliness. The total scale score is the sum of the item scores, ranging from 0 (not lonely) to 11 (extremely lonely).
ONS Wellbeing Question	ONS wellbeing at 6 months	The Office for National Statistics Wellbeing Question is a standard question used by Office for National Statistics to examine subjective wellbeing of the general population in the UK, with questions grouped in three domains - (evaluative, experience and eudemonic). It is scored on a 0 to 10 scale with a higher score indicating better well-being.
General Perceived Self Efficacy (GSE) Scale	GSE at 6 months	The General Perceived Self Efficacy (GSE) Scale is a 10-item questionnaire assessing a person's coping resources. Responses are made on a 4-point scale. Summing up the responses to all 10 items yields the final composite score with a range from 10 to 40. Higher scores indicate higher perceived general self-efficacy, lower scores indicate lower perceived general self-efficacy
Other Dimensions of the SF-36 (and Specifically Physical Health)	SF36 other dimensions at 6 months	The Short Form 36 Health Survey Questionnaire (SF-36) is a 36 item scale, which measures eight domains of health status: physical functioning (10 items); physical role limitations (four items); bodily pain (two items); general health perceptions (five items); energy/vitality (four items); social functioning (two items); emotional role limitations (three items) and mental health (five items). A scoring algorithm is used to convert the raw scores into the eight dimensions listed above. The scores are transformed to range from zero where the respondent has the worst possible health to 100 where the respondent is in the best possible health.
EQ-5D for Health Economic Analysis	EQ-5D at 6 months	EuroQol-5D-3L (EQ-5D-3L) is an instrument which evaluates the generic quality of life developed in Europe and widely used. The EQ-5D descriptive system is a preference-based HRQL measure with one question for each of the five dimensions that include mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression. This ranges from 1 (good health) to - 0.56.