Decreasing Loneliness in Older Adults

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Social Isolation; Loneliness
• Interventions: Behavioral: I-SOCIAL intervention

• Registration Number: NCT01842984
• Lead Sponsor: Tel Aviv University

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.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2013-03
• Study First Submitted: 2013-04-22
• Study First Submitted QC: 2013-04-25
• Study First Posted: 2013-04-30
• Primary Completion: 2016-12
• Study Completion: 2018-12
• Status Verified: 2019-10
• Last Update Submitted: 2019-10-30
• Last Update Posted: 2019-10-31

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 74

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

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
I-SOCIAL intervention	I-SOCIAL intervention	Participants in this group will have up to 10 personal meetings with activities counselors and several group meetings.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in Loneliness	Participants will be assessed before and after the intervention, an expected average of 6 months	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 Based on experience from another study (Cohen-Mansfield et al., 2013) one item ("I am unhappy being so withdrawn") was replaced with two items ("I feel physically distant from other people"; "I feel emotionally distant from other people).

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Tel-Aviv University; 🇮🇱 Tel-Aviv, Israel