Escape loneliness by going digital: A quantitative and qualitative evaluation of a Dutch experiment in using ECT to overcome loneliness among older adults
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BACKGROUND: This study evaluates the outcomes of an Internet-at-home intervention experiment that intended to decrease loneliness among chronically ill and physically handicapped older adults through introducing them to the use of an electronic communication facility. METHOD: To determine the effectiveness of the experiment in terms of reducing loneliness, 15 older adults were interviewed three times: shortly before the start, two years later and immediately after termination of the experiment, while their loneliness scores at zero and post-measurement were compared with those of a control group. RESULTS: Both the participants and the control persons experienced a reduction in loneliness over time. However, the reduction was only significant for the intervention participants. Moreover, the changes in loneliness were significantly greater among the participants compared to the control persons. When looking more in detail, the effect of the experiment was only significant regarding emotional loneliness and among the highest educated. Findings of the qualitative research enabled us to understand the mechanisms through which the intervention helped alleviate loneliness. E-mail was found to facilitate social contact. Furthermore, the computer and Internet were often used to pass the time, taking people's minds off their loneliness. Unexpectedly, the intervention also improved people's self-confidence. CONCLUSION: The decline in loneliness is likely to be greater if persons under more favorable circumstances are selected and if more social functions of the Internet are used.
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Technology-based community interventions, including telephone, Internet, and iPad/smartphone applications, have shown promising results in reducing social isolation among older adults.
“There is a growing focus on technology-based community interventions, including those offered by telephone, Internet, and iPad/smartphone applications, with findings demonstrating promising results in reducing social isolation among older adults (43–45).”
From Telephone-based group mental health support for older adults in central Canada: pilot acceptability and effectiveness findings of The CONNECT Program (2025) · cites this paper as [44]
The Abstract (p. 3) reports a greater reduction in loneliness among participants in an Internet-at-home intervention than among controls, supporting the Internet portion of the claim. But the Results (p. 8) say the reduction in social loneliness was not significant, and the Discussion (p. 10) cautions that the observed reduction cannot be attributed to the intervention. This paper does not evaluate telephone or iPad/smartphone applications. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAt three-year follow-up, in an internet training intervention for community-dwelling older people who lived alone and were housebound through chronic illness or physical disability, intervention group participants reported a significantly greater reduction in overall loneliness compared with the control group.
“At the three-year follow-up, intervention group participants reported a significantly greater reduction in overall loneliness, in comparison with the control group”
From Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review (2011) · cites this paper as [79]
In the same internet training intervention, no difference was observed between intervention and control on the sub-scales of social and emotional loneliness at three-year follow-up.
“while no difference was observed on the sub-scales of social and emotional loneliness.”
From Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review (2011) · cites this paper as [79]
Five out of 11 (45%) one-to-one interventions had a positive effect on at least one of the four social health sub-domains.
“This compares with five out of 11 (45%) one-to-one interventions [59,71,78,79,81].”
From Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review (2011) · cites this paper as [79]
One of the four (25%) interventions offering internet training led to beneficial effects.
“as did one of the four (25%) interventions offering internet training [79].”
From Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review (2011) · cites this paper as [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].”
From Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review (2011) · cites this paper as [79]
One out of four (25%) interventions delivered by IT instructors led to beneficial effects.
“One out of the four (25%) interventions delivered by IT instructors led to beneficial effects [79].”
From Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review (2011) · cites this paper as [79]
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- Authors
- Fokkema, T., & Knipscheer, K.
- Affiliations
- Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NL)
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Fokkema, T.
- ORCID
- Fokkema, T.
- Venue
- Aging & Mental Health
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2007-09
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 496-504
- ISSN
- 1360-7863 (ISSN-L)
- 1364-6915
- OpenAlex
- W2121289794
- Cited by
- 230
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 9
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- research.vu.nl
- Licence
- other-oa
- Locations
- Aging & Mental Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- KNAW research portal (Royal Academy of Art and Sciences (KNAW)) (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- VSB Fonds
- Nederlands Interdisciplinair Demografisch Instituut
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Demography › Technology Use by Older Adults
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Aging, Health, and Disability
- Keywords
- loneliness, older adults, digital communication, email, social contact, emotional loneliness, chronic disease, physical disability, self-confidence, digital technology use
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Humans, Interviews as Topic, Male, Netherlands, Social Isolation, User-Computer Interface, Internet
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
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