Tele-BA for Home-Delivered Meals Clients

Dartmouth Health

Status: Completed

Conditions: Social Isolation

Treatments: Behavioral: Tele-Behavioral Activation; Behavioral: Tele-Friendly Visiting

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04131790

D19169

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study to evaluate aging-service integrated, video-conference-based approaches to improve homebound seniors' social engagement and activities.

Enrollment: 89 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 60+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• English speaking
• Clients of the Meals on Weals program
• ≥60 years old
• Score between 6-9 on the Hughes three-item version of the UCLA Loneliness Scale

Exclusion criteria

• Dementia, as indicated by a score > 3 on the Six Item Screen
• Clinically significant depression, as indicated by a score ≥15 on the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)
• Active suicide risk, as indicated by a positive response on any item of the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS)
• Uncorrectable hearing or vision impairment

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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89 participants in 2 patient groups

Tele-Behavioral Activation

Experimental group

Description:

Manualized Behavioral Activation (BA) protocol delivered via videoconferencing by a trained BA interventionist; 5 sessions over 5 weeks, up to 1-hour in length. The interventionist guides participants in learning BA skills, focusing on strategies to decrease barriers to social connectedness (e.g., limited mobility, inadequate caregiving resources).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Tele-Behavioral Activation

Tele-Friendly Visiting

Active Comparator group

Description:

Friendly Visitor (FV) calls delivered via videoconferencing by a trained FV interventionist; 5 sessions over 5 weeks, up to 1-hour in length. The interventionist provides social support to participants through good listening and provision of genuine regard.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Tele-Friendly Visiting