Alleviating Loneliness among Frail Older People – Findings from a Randomised Controlled Trial
Abstract
Loneliness among frail older people predicts increased use of health services, early institutionalisation and increased mortality. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of a new rehabilitation model on loneliness among frail older people. This randomized controlled multi-centre trial with a 12-month follow-up was implemented in Finland. A total of 708 community-dwelling people aged 65+ years with progressively decreasing functional capacity participated. Participants were randomly allocated to the intervention group (n = 343) or to the control group (n = 365). The intervention consisted of a network-based group rehabilitation programme designed for frail older people. A 0.9-fold decrease in the proportion of participants feeling lonely was observed in the intervention group and a 1.1-fold increase in the control group. The results suggest that a physically orientated rehabilitation programme may reduce emotional loneliness.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Participants in a physical activity programme within an inpatient geriatric rehabilitation setting reported reduced depression at 12 month follow-up, while no effect was observed on loneliness or the number of friends and relatives.
“Participants in a physical activity programme within an inpatient geriatric rehabilitation setting [70] reported reduced depression at 12 month follow-up, while no effect was observed on loneliness or the number of friends and relatives.”
From Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review (2011) · cites this paper as [70]
With the addition of two studies, the proportion of effective group interventions rose to 79% (15 out of 19), and with the addition of one study, the proportion of effective one-to-one interventions rose to 55% (6 out of 11).
“The proportion of effective group interventions rose to 79% (15 out of 19) with the addition of two studies [56,70], and the proportion of effective one-to-one interventions rose to 55% (6 out of 11) with the addition of one study [54].”
From Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review (2011) · cites this paper as [70]
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].”
From Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review (2011) · cites this paper as [70]
Nine out of 11 (82%) interventions delivered by health and social care professionals reported at least one beneficial effect.
“compared with nine out of 11 (82%) interventions delivered by health and social care professionals [13,52,56,60,65,69,70,76,81].”
From Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review (2011) · cites this paper as [70]
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 51 · Cited by 42
- Authors
- Ollonqvist, K., Palkeinen, H., Aaltonen, T., Pohjolainen, T., Puukka, P., Hinkka, K., & Pöntinen, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Turku (FI)
- University of Tampere (FI)
- Social Insurance Institution (FI)
- Tekonivelsairaala Orton (FI)
- Venue
- International Journal of Mental Health Promotion
- Publisher
- Tech Science Press
- Published
- 2008-05
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 26-34
- ISSN
- 1462-3730 (ISSN-L)
- 2049-8543
- OpenAlex
- W2069660924
- Cited by
- 42
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 0.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- International Journal of Mental Health Promotion (publishedVersion)
- STM:n Hallinnonalan avoin julkaisuarkisto (Julkari) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Geriatrics and Gerontology › Frailty in Older Adults
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Aging, Health, and Disability
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Keywords
- loneliness, frail elderly, group rehabilitation, community-dwelling older adults, functional capacity decline, emotional loneliness, rehabilitation therapy
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.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
