An activity group experience for disengaged elderly persons.

An evaluation of an activity group for socially disengaged community-dwelling older people reported that participants increased their social interaction compared with the control group at six weeks.

“An evaluation of an activity group for socially disengaged community-dwelling older people [67] reported that participants increased their social interaction in comparison with the control group at six weeks.”

Thirteen out of 19 (68%) group interventions in this review had a positive effect on at least one of the four social health sub-domains.

“Thirteen out of 19 (68%) group interventions in this review [13,53,55,60,63,66-69,73-76] had a positive effect on at least one of the four social health sub-domains.”

Thirteen out of 15 (87%) interventions categorised as having a theoretical basis reported beneficial effects on at least one outcome domain compared with 10 out of 17 (59%) studies categorised as having no theoretical basis.

“Thirteen out of 15 (87%) interventions categorised as having a theoretical basis reported beneficial effects on at least one outcome domain [13,53-55,59,65,67-69,73-75,81] compared with 10/17 (59%) studies categorised as having no theoretical basis [52,56,60,63,66,70,71,76,78,79].”

Seven out of 12 studies (58%) that recruited explicitly targeted participants reported positive effects on outcomes compared with 16 out of 20 (80%) studies with no explicit targeting.

“Seven out of 12 studies (58%) that recruited explicitly targeted participants reported positive effects on outcomes [13,56,67,71,75,78,79], compared with 16/20 (80%) studies with no explicit targeting [52-55,59,60,63,65,66,68-70,73,74,76,81].”

Four studies provided no information about the person providing the intervention, three of which (75%) reported beneficial outcomes.

“Four studies provided no information about the person providing the intervention, three of which (75%) reported beneficial outcomes [63,67,75].”

Six out of seven (86%) activity interventions had at least one beneficial effect across the three domains of social, mental and physical health.

“six out of the seven (86%) activity interventions had at least one beneficial effect across the three domains of social, mental and physical health [13,60,67,70,74,81].”