Loneliness improved by either telephone or video communications in community-dwelling older adults

Purpose/hypothesis

Loneliness and social isolation increase the risk of morbidity, and mortality. Various interventions, with and without use of technology, have improved older adults’ loneliness. The purpose of the study was to compare the impact of telephone versus video communications on perceived loneliness in older adults. It was hypothesized that video communication would result in improved outcomes compared to telephone communication.

Materials/methods

Eighteen hundred flyers were distributed among continuing care communities, meals on wheels, and snowball sampling was encouraged. Sixty-five potential participants responded, 44 were eligible to participate after application of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Participants were assigned into a telephone interaction group (n = 17), a video interaction group (n = 14), or control group (n = 13). Study duration was 8 weeks and consisted of once weekly 45 to 60-minute sessions. Pre-post-intervention outcome measures included UCLA Loneliness Scales (3 and 20-item), and the Social Frailty Scale (SFS). Data analyses were performed with One-Way ANOVA and Tukey's HSD post hoc tests.

Results

One-way ANOVA demonstrated statistically significant differences between groups (p=.003 UCLA 3, p<.001 UCLA 20, p<.001 SFS) with large effect sizes (eta²= 0.251 UCLA3, 0.410 UCLA20, 0.314 SFS). Tukey's HSD demonstrates statistically significant differences between intervention groups and the control group for each dependent variable (p<.011) but identified no significant differences between intervention groups for any dependent variables (p>.283).

Conclusion

Health care professionals can improve loneliness and social isolation through low-tech telephone and video-based communication interventions.