Alleviating Loneliness in Older Adults Living in Poverty: A Multi-level Intervention

Education University of Hong Kong

Status: Not yet enrolling

Conditions: Poverty; Loneliness

Treatments: Behavioral: Interpersonal Level; Behavioral: Individual Level; Other: Education Control; Behavioral: Community Level

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07123064

2023-2024-0624

R8002-24 (Other Grant/Funding Number)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The study aims to reduce loneliness among Hong Kong Chinese older adults living in poverty with a multi-level intervention involving components at the individual, interpersonal, and community levels.

Full description

Loneliness is widespread, with negative impacts on both individuals and society and associated direct and indirect healthcare and long-term care costs. Thus, it is imperative to alleviate loneliness in old age by implementing effective, accessible, affordable, and scalable interventions. Loneliness is often erroneously considered an individual problem due to personal failure. Still, growing evidence indicates that loneliness is caused by factors at multiple levels, including the individual, interpersonal, and community levels. Hence, a multi-level approach is recommended to alleviate loneliness.

However, multi-level interventions for reducing loneliness are in their infancy, and there is yet to be evidence to suggest that they are more effective than single-level interventions. The investigators will conduct an innovative and impactful study to fill this important research gap. This study is a single-blinded cluster, four-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT) designed to test the effect and cost-effectiveness of a multi-level intervention to alleviate loneliness among Hong Kong Chinese older adults living in poverty. The investigators will also adopt the modified biopsychosocial (BPS) model, called the BPS-Pathways model, as the theoretical framework to guide our selection of interventions, mediators, secondary outcomes, long-term outcomes, and impact.

Enrollment: 1,344 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 65+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• aged 65 years or older
• living in poverty (defined: inability to afford at least 5 items on the material deprivation index)
• proficiency in spoken Cantonese
• experiencing loneliness (defined: score of ≥ 6 on the 3-item UCLA Loneliness Scale)

Exclusion criteria

• cognitive impairments, psychiatric disorders, learning disabilities, or active suicidal ideation
• actively participating in other psychotherapy or psychosocial interventions in the past 1 year

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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1,344 participants in 4 patient groups

First Arm

Experimental group

Description:

Individual-level

Treatment:

Behavioral: Individual Level

Second Arm

Experimental group

Description:

Individual- and Interpersonal-level

Treatment:

Behavioral: Individual Level

Behavioral: Interpersonal Level

Third Arm

Experimental group

Description:

Individual-, Interpersonal-, and Community-level

Treatment:

Behavioral: Community Level

Behavioral: Individual Level

Behavioral: Interpersonal Level

Forth Arm

Active Comparator group

Description:

Education Control Group

Treatment:

Other: Education Control