Telephone Calls for Health for Homebound Older Adults

The University of Texas System (UT)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Loneliness; Depression; Social Isolation

Treatments: Behavioral: Phone Call

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04595708

2020-05-0009

Details and patient eligibility

About

A randomized controlled trial of the effect of 4 weeks of regular check-in calls, up to 5 per week based on participant's choice and 2 survey collection calls and possible referral of other services, versus no daily check-in calls, on self-reported loneliness measures for current Meals on Wheels participants (MOW).

Full description

The intervention arm will include 125 MOW clients to receive a call of between 5 - 10 minutes in length each by a consistent caller, five times a week, Monday through Friday for 4 consecutive weeks to check in on them. After the first week of calls, subjects in the intervention arm will be asked if the frequency of calls is acceptable or if they would like to reduce the call frequency, potentially to a minimum of twice per week.

Brief guidance and training will be provided for the daily conversation to maximize time spent speaking by the recipient but otherwise, the calls are unscripted other than specific prompts to ask about the recipient's general sense of well-being. "How are you doing today?"

The control Arm will include 125 MOW clients who will be randomized to a control group that will not receive the intervention calls. The control group will receive calls from a member of the research team at the beginning of the study to collect baseline survey data and at the post-4-week period to collect post-study survey data.

Enrollment: 240 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Adult (18+) clients of Meals on Wheels of Central Texas

Exclusion criteria

• Cognitive impairment or in a hospice program.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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240 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention - Calls

Experimental group

Description:

Participants randomized to the intervention will receive a call of between 5 - 10 minutes in length each by a consistent caller, five times a week, Monday through Friday for 4 consecutive weeks to check in on them. After the first week of calls, subjects in the intervention arm will be asked if the frequency of calls is acceptable or if they would like to reduce the call frequency, potentially to a minimum of twice per week.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Phone Call

Control - No calls

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants randomized to a control group will not receive the intervention calls. The control group will receive calls from a member of the research team at the beginning of the study to collect baseline survey data and at the post-4-week period to collect post-study survey data.