Effects of a Volunteer-based Lunch Program on Feelings of Loneliness in Elders
NCT ID: NCT03552328
Last Updated: 2019-07-22
Study Results
The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.
Basic Information
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COMPLETED
NA
16 participants
INTERVENTIONAL
2018-10-15
2019-05-15
Brief Summary
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Methods: Lonely elders in the community will be identified and matched with a trained medical student. Each student will bring provided lunches once a week to their elder participant's residence, and they will share lunch together for an hour once a week for six weeks. Enrollees are eligible for the study if they are over 60 years of age, speak English, have feelings of loneliness on the three-item scale, and display no cognitive impairment. The participants will be assessed pre and post intervention using the R-UCLA scale for loneliness, PHQ-9 for depressive symptoms, and GAD-7 for feelings of anxiety. Participant satisfaction will be assessed using Likert items as well as open-ended questions. Intervention group responses will be compared to responses of participants that did not receive the lunch meeting intervention.
Discussion: Success of such a companion lunch program would provide an effective route to combat loneliness in the elderly.
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Detailed Description
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Loneliness has been previously defined as the difference between desired and actual relationships, and there is a distinction between loneliness and social isolation. While being considered socially isolated is due to lack of social contact, loneliness is assessed by perceptions of social isolation. Feelings of disconnect, isolation, and not belonging are much more indicative of loneliness than simple aloneness and lack of social contact. Not having a support network or anyone to confide in can lead to feelings of social isolation, and despite advances in technology and the development of social media, feelings of loneliness have increased in the past thirty years. The proportion of Americans who said they had no one to talk to about important matters increased from 10% in 1985 to 25% in 2004. This is an alarming trend because social support has been consistently shown to increase the likelihood of survival. In a meta-analytic review from 2009, participants with strong social relationships and support were found to have a 50 percent increased likelihood of survival. Additionally, a 2013 study found that mortality rates were significantly higher among socially isolated and lonely elders. Loneliness has a profound effect on our healthcare system and has been linked to a higher degree of healthcare utilization. In a Swedish study from 2014, researchers found that lonely elders use more outpatient services than non-lonely elders. In 2015, Gerst et al. found that the large proportion of elders over 60 years old that reported feelings of loneliness had a significantly higher physician visit rate.
There is a demonstrated need for intervention in this lonely, elderly population, with significant public health implications. A randomized control trial from 1999 implementing a visitor volunteer program for the elderly showed that strong community involvement increased the participants' feelings of worth, social integration, and life satisfaction. More recently, a local food delivery project in Tampa showed that weekly food delivery to an at-risk elderly population decreased participants' feelings of loneliness and increased their measured well-being over the course of two months. While both pilot programs had short evaluation periods, they demonstrated the effectiveness of volunteer-based community involvement. Combining a visitor volunteer program with a food delivery service could serve to effectively combat the elderly community's feelings of loneliness and social isolation.
A local food delivery project in Tampa showed that weekly food delivery to an at-risk elderly population decreased participants' feelings of loneliness and increased their measured well-being over the course of two months. Even though it demonstrated the effectiveness of volunteer-based community involvement, the project was constructed as a pretest-posttest, descriptive study using convenience sampling, and feelings of loneliness were evaluated as a secondary objective using a three-item loneliness screener. In our study, we plan to measure the effects of adding a volunteer visitor to the lunch program; that is, to see if eating meals with a medical student can decrease feelings of loneliness when compared with simply receiving meals through Meals on Wheels. Our study is designed as a randomized control trial in which seniors will be randomly assigned to two groups: paired with a medical student for lunch or not paired with a medical student while still receiving meals.
Conditions
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Study Design
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RANDOMIZED
PARALLEL
TREATMENT
DOUBLE
Also, since the outcome data will be collected using a questionnaire, the possibility of interpretation does not exist. Data analysts will not be informed of the subject assignment and the coding for participant will be as group 1 or 2.
Study Groups
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Intervention
Seniors receiving daily meals from Meals on Wheels. Intervention: Lunch with Medical Student.
Lunch with Medical Student
Each student will bring provided lunches once a week to their elder participant's residence, and they will share lunch together for an hour once a week for six weeks. Students will enroll as Meals on Wheels volunteers and participate in the Meals on Wheels pre-program training. On the day of their scheduled lunch, students will first arrive at the Meals on Wheels designated meal-drop location and pick up two lunches, one for them and one for their assigned elder. They will then drive to their assigned elder's residence and eat lunch with them for one hour.
Control
Seniors receiving daily meals from Meals on Wheels
Control
Students will not bring provided lunches to an elder participant's residence. The elder participants in this arm will simply continue receiving daily meals from Meals on Wheels with no accompanying student.
Interventions
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Lunch with Medical Student
Each student will bring provided lunches once a week to their elder participant's residence, and they will share lunch together for an hour once a week for six weeks. Students will enroll as Meals on Wheels volunteers and participate in the Meals on Wheels pre-program training. On the day of their scheduled lunch, students will first arrive at the Meals on Wheels designated meal-drop location and pick up two lunches, one for them and one for their assigned elder. They will then drive to their assigned elder's residence and eat lunch with them for one hour.
Control
Students will not bring provided lunches to an elder participant's residence. The elder participants in this arm will simply continue receiving daily meals from Meals on Wheels with no accompanying student.
Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria
Exclusion Criteria
60 Years
ALL
Yes
Sponsors
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The Arnold P. Gold Foundation
OTHER
University of South Florida
OTHER
Responsible Party
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Brennan Ninesling
Medical Student
Principal Investigators
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Lucy Guerra, MD, MPH
Role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
Associate Professor, USF College of Medicine Internal Medicine
Locations
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Morsani College of Medicine
Tampa, Florida, United States
Countries
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References
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Lawson, V. and K. Kinsella, Aging in the United States: Past, present, and future. 1996, International Programs Center, Population Division, US Bureau of the Census, Washington, DC.
Perissinotto CM, Stijacic Cenzer I, Covinsky KE. Loneliness in older persons: a predictor of functional decline and death. Arch Intern Med. 2012 Jul 23;172(14):1078-83. doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2012.1993.
Dykstra PA. Older adult loneliness: myths and realities. Eur J Ageing. 2009 Jun;6(2):91-100. doi: 10.1007/s10433-009-0110-3. Epub 2009 Apr 4.
Hughes ME, Waite LJ, Hawkley LC, Cacioppo JT. A Short Scale for Measuring Loneliness in Large Surveys: Results From Two Population-Based Studies. Res Aging. 2004;26(6):655-672. doi: 10.1177/0164027504268574.
Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Layton JB. Social relationships and mortality risk: a meta-analytic review. PLoS Med. 2010 Jul 27;7(7):e1000316. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316.
McPherson, M., L. Smith-Lovin, and M.E. Brashears, Social isolation in America: Changes in core discussion networks over two decades. American sociological review, 2006. 71(3): p. 353-375.
Steptoe A, Shankar A, Demakakos P, Wardle J. Social isolation, loneliness, and all-cause mortality in older men and women. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Apr 9;110(15):5797-801. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1219686110. Epub 2013 Mar 25.
Taube E, Kristensson J, Sandberg M, Midlov P, Jakobsson U. Loneliness and health care consumption among older people. Scand J Caring Sci. 2015 Sep;29(3):435-43. doi: 10.1111/scs.12147. Epub 2014 May 14.
Gerst-Emerson K, Jayawardhana J. Loneliness as a public health issue: the impact of loneliness on health care utilization among older adults. Am J Public Health. 2015 May;105(5):1013-9. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.302427. Epub 2015 Mar 19.
MacIntyre I, Corradetti P, Roberts J, Browne G, Watt S, Lane A. Pilot study of a visitor volunteer programme for community elderly people receiving home health care. Health Soc Care Community. 1999 May;7(3):225-232. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2524.1999.00178.x.
Wright L, Vance L, Sudduth C, Epps JB. The Impact of a Home-Delivered Meal Program on Nutritional Risk, Dietary Intake, Food Security, Loneliness, and Social Well-Being. J Nutr Gerontol Geriatr. 2015;34(2):218-27. doi: 10.1080/21551197.2015.1022681.
Cattan M, Kime N, Bagnall AM. The use of telephone befriending in low level support for socially isolated older people--an evaluation. Health Soc Care Community. 2011 Mar;19(2):198-206. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2524.2010.00967.x. Epub 2010 Nov 29.
Provided Documents
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Document Type: Study Protocol
Document Type: Informed Consent Form
Other Identifiers
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Pro00034170
Identifier Type: -
Identifier Source: org_study_id
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