Intervention to reduce perceived loneliness in community‐dwelling older people

Abstract

Aim We evaluated the reduction in perceived loneliness and depression and the increase in social support and quality of life in community‐dwelling lonely people aged >65 years included in a community intervention compared with nonlonely controls from the same urban area. Design Randomised clinical trial without blind evaluation. Location Urban area of Barcelona. Participants Community dwellers aged >65 years with loneliness identified by the primary care team. Interventions The primary care team together with community agents (municipal social services, community civil and religious associations) carried out 18 sessions developing activities including educational workshops, mindfulness, yoga, walking and visits to urban gardens. Results We included 55 patients (87% female, mean age 80.6 ± 6.86 years) of whom 82% had moderate and 18% severe loneliness. Six months postintervention, 48.3% of the intervention group did not feel lonely compared with 26.9% of controls (p = 0.001). Social support (DUKE‐UNC‐11) increased from 33.5 ± 9.3 to 41.4 ± 6.6, and mental health (SF‐12) from 36 ± 610.4 to 48 ± 11.1 and depressive symptoms (Yesavage test) decreased from 9.2 ± 3.6 to 5.2 ± 5.0 in the intervention but not the control group. Conclusions The intervention mainly reached people with moderate loneliness and significantly improved the perception of loneliness, depressive symptoms, social support and the mental health component of the quality of life. The intervention may be more suitable for people with moderate loneliness, but these types of activities may be difficult to accept by people with severe loneliness not related to the barriers to socialisation generated by ageing.