Interventions targeting loneliness and social isolation among the older people: An update systematic review

Poscia, Andrea; Stojanovic, Jovana; Milìa, Daniele Ignazio La; Duplaga, Mariusz; Grysztar, Marcin; Moscato, Umberto; Onder, Graziano; Collamati, Agnese; Ricciardi, Walter; Magnavita, Nicola

doi:10.1016/j.exger.2017.11.017

Cited by 294 publications

(295 citation statements)

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“…Review papers were published between 1984 and 2017 and of these, systematic reviews were the most common type of reviews obtained [9,10,26,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41], followed by literature reviews [6,[42][43][44][45][46][47], evidence reviews [18,[48][49][50], narrative reviews [25,51,52], and other types of review including critical [53], empirical [54], rapid [55] and integrative review [11]. This information is represented in a diagrammatic form in Fig.…”

Section: Type Of Reviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Of those reviews which employed a systematic means of selecting eligible primary research (n = 14), ten papers included only studies published in English, two review papers included studies published in any language, one review included studies published in English and Italian [34], and 1 included studies published in English, French, Italian and Spanish [41].…”

Section: Type Of Reviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…McWhirter [6] and Masi, et al [31] and Cohen-Mansfield and Perach [53]; and 3) reviews that included papers with interventions for both loneliness and social isolation (n = 13) e.g. Poscia, et al [34] and Cattan, et al [10]. The remaining five reviews focused on loneliness and other outcomes of interests such as anxiety and depression (n = 3); or other related concepts such as social participation [56], and social connectedness [35].…”

Section: Concept Of Loneliness and Social Isolationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Men's Sheds are communitybased organisations that provide a space for older men to participate in craftwork and engage in social interaction [52]. Review authors often reported that the gender distribution of participants in primary research involving loneliness/social isolation was heavily skewed towards the female population [31,33,34,37,39]. The subsets of the female population reported in the reviews includes: isolated older women, women at risk of suicide, senior women on the housing waiting list [33]; community-living, chronically ill women [31]; women with primary breast cancer, community-dwelling, single women [34]; and community-dwelling low-income women with low perceived social support [39].…”

Section: Population Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Loneliness and social isolation interventions for older adults: a scoping review of reviews

Fakoya¹,

McCorry²,

Donnelly³

2020

BMC Public Health

541

409

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Background: Loneliness and social isolation are growing public health concerns in our ageing society. Whilst these experiences occur across the life span, 50% of individuals aged over 60 are at risk of social isolation and one-third will experience some degree of loneliness later in life. The aim of this scoping review was to describe the range of interventions to reduce loneliness and social isolation among older adults that have been evaluated; in terms of intervention conceptualisation, categorisation, and components. Methods: Three electronic databases (CINAHL, Embase and Medline) were systematically searched for relevant published reviews of interventions for loneliness and social isolation. Inclusion criteria were: review of any type, published in English, a target population of older people and reported data on the categorisation of loneliness and/or social isolation interventions. Data extracted included: categories of interventions and the reasoning underpinning this categorisation. The methodology framework proposed by Arskey and O'Malley and further developed by Levac, et al. was used to guide the scoping review process. Results: A total of 33 reviews met the inclusion criteria, evaluating a range of interventions targeted at older people residing in the community or institutionalised settings. Authors of reviews included in this paper often used the same terms to categorise different intervention components and many did not provide a clear definition of these terms. There were inconsistent meanings attributed to intervention characteristics. Overall, interventions were commonly categorised on the basis of: 1) group or one-to-one delivery mode, 2) the goal of the intervention, and 3) the intervention type. Several authors replicated the categorisation system used in previous reviews. Conclusion: Many interventions have been developed to combat loneliness and social isolation among older people. The individuality of the experience of loneliness and isolation may cause difficulty in the delivery of standardised interventions. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to addressing loneliness or social isolation, and hence the need to tailor interventions to suit the needs of individuals, specific groups or the degree of loneliness experienced. Therefore, future research should be aimed at discerning what intervention works for whom, in what particular context and how.

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Section: Type Of Reviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Type Of Reviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Concept Of Loneliness and Social Isolationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Population Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Loneliness and social isolation interventions for older adults: a scoping review of reviews

Fakoya¹,

McCorry²,

Donnelly³

2020

BMC Public Health

541

409

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Through research, we can not only understand the loneliness of the current group, but also help to discover the internal and external factors that influence the group. Some of these factors can be controlled through human efforts to provide further policy advice (Poscia, Stojanovic, Milia La et al, 2018). In addition, children and social workers can understand the loneliness of the elderly in a more comprehensive and detailed way, providing some reference and reference for their filial piety and work.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential Transformation Analysis of Loneliness of the Elderly and Its Influencing Factors

2020

RACP

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The loneliness of the elderly is a hot issue due to the rising divorce rate, growing migration and rapid urbanization. Therefore, this paper aims to gain insights into the loneliness of the elderly and its influencing factors. To this end, he potential transformation analysis, an individual-based vertical analysis strategy, was adopted to analyze the level of loneliness of the elderly in China, examine the differences among the elderly in loneliness from the angles of gender, age, marital status, economic status, and cultural life, and assess the effects of personal, family and social factors on the loneliness of the elderly. The results show that the loneliness and mental health of the elderly need to be improved from multiple aspects: In the personal aspect, the elderly should enhance immunity by keeping a regular diet and doing a moderate amount of exercises; In the family aspect, the company of children and stability of family environment can effectively alleviate the loneliness of the elderly; In the social aspect, the government should assume social responsibility, improve medical services, promote mental health knowledge, and increase the welfare, such as to ease the elderly's loneliness. The research lays a theoretical basis for improving the quality of life of the elderly.

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Interventions Associated With Reduced Loneliness and Social Isolation in Older Adults

et al. 2022

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ImportanceLoneliness and social isolation are public health concerns faced by older adults due to physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes that develop with aging. Loneliness and social isolation are associated with increased morbidity and mortality.ObjectiveTo evaluate interventions, targeting older adults, associated with a reduction in loneliness and social isolation.Data SourcesOVID, CINAHL, CENTRAL, Embase, PsychINFO, Web of Science, and Scopus were searched from inception to March 2020.Study SelectionPeer-reviewed randomized clinical trials measuring loneliness and social isolation or support in adults aged 65 years or older. Only English language articles were included.Data Extraction and SynthesisTwo independent reviewers screened studies, extracted data, and assessed risk of bias. Random-effects models were performed to pool the overall effect size by intervention. Statistical heterogeneity was evaluated with the I2 statistic and by estimating prediction intervals. Data were analyzed from November 2021 to September 2022.Main Outcomes and MeasuresQuantitative measures of loneliness, social isolation, or social support based on an effect size of standardized mean differences.ResultsSeventy studies were included in the systematic review (8259 participants); 44 studies were included in the loneliness meta-analysis (33 in the community with 3535 participants; 11 in long-term care with 1057 participants), with participants’ ages ranging from 55 to 100 years. Study sizes ranged from 8 to 741 participants. Interventions included animal therapy, psychotherapy or cognitive behavioral therapy, multicomponent, counseling, exercise, music therapy, occupational therapy, reminiscence therapy, social interventions, and technological interventions. Most interventions had a small effect size. Animal therapy in long-term care, when accounting for studies with no active controls, had the largest effect size on loneliness reduction (−1.86; 95% CI, −3.14 to −0.59; I2 = 86%) followed by technological interventions (videoconferencing) in long-term care (−1.40; 95% CI, −2.37 to −0.44; I2 = 70%).Conclusions and RelevanceIn this study, animal therapy and technology in long-term care had large effect sizes, but also high heterogeneity, so the effect size’s magnitude should be interpreted with caution. The small number of studies per intervention limits conclusions on sources of heterogeneity. Overall quality of evidence was very low. Future studies should consider measures of social isolation in long-term care and identify the contextual components that are associated with a reduction in loneliness.

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Interventions targeting loneliness and social isolation among the older people: An update systematic review

Cited by 294 publications

References 37 publications

Loneliness and social isolation interventions for older adults: a scoping review of reviews

Loneliness and social isolation interventions for older adults: a scoping review of reviews

Potential Transformation Analysis of Loneliness of the Elderly and Its Influencing Factors

Interventions Associated With Reduced Loneliness and Social Isolation in Older Adults

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