Effectiveness of a multicomponent intervention to reduce social isolation and loneliness in community‐dwelling elders: A randomized clinical trial

Abstract

Aims: To assess the effect of a multicomponent intervention on reducing social iso-lation and loneliness and improving the quality of life in community-dwelling olderadults.Design: A cluster-randomized controlled clinical trial.Methods: A total of 56 older adults participated in the control group and 63 olderadults in the experimental group. The intervention consisted of 6 home-based face-to-face sessions, intercalated with 5 telephone calls and was conducted by nursingstudents and volunteer staff with experience in the subject. The study was conductedbetween April 2018 and December 2019. In terms of statistical analysis, several pro -cedures were carried out: a statistical analysis per protocol and intention to treat, con-sidering isolation, loneliness and quality of life as endpoints; a comparison of pairedmeans, to analyse the behaviour of the outcome variables at baseline and the end ofthe study; and finally, a binary logistic regression analysis, considering social supportas a dependent variable.Results: The study results do not show the effectiveness of the modified CARELINKprogramme, analysed as a whole, on the decrease in social isolation or loneliness orthe improvement in HRQL. However, a detailed analysis of the behaviour of some ofthe variables during the study indicates some results that deserve to be commentedon. Comparing the mean confidential support scores between the experimental andcontrol group at the initial and final stages shows significant differences in the analysisby protocol, and close to statistical significance in the analysis by intention to treat.Comparing the paired means obtained in the experimental group, an improvement inemotional loneliness scores was found. Finally, the variables associated with the socialsupport of the subjects at the end of the follow-up period were as follows: havingpeople who help them and mobility.