TY - JOUR
T1 - The effectiveness of interventions to prevent loneliness and social isolation in the community-dwelling and old population
T2 - an overview of systematic reviews and meta-analysis
AU - Grillich, Ludwig
AU - Titscher, Viktoria
AU - Klingenstein, Pauline
AU - Kostial, Eva
AU - Emprechtinger, Robert
AU - Klerings, Irma
AU - Sommer, Isolde
AU - Nikitin, Jana
AU - Laireiter, Anton-Rupert
N1 - © The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association.
PY - 2023/4/1
Y1 - 2023/4/1
N2 - BACKGROUND: Loneliness and social isolation have comparable health effects to widely acknowledged and established risk factors. Although old people are particularly affected, the effectiveness of interventions to prevent and/or mitigate social isolation and loneliness in the community-dwelling older adults is unclear. The aim of this review of reviews was to pool the findings of systematic reviews (SRs) addressing the question of effectiveness.METHODS: Ovid MEDLINE®, Health Evidence, Epistemonikos and Global Health (EBSCO) were searched from January 2017 to November 2021. Two reviewers independently assessed each SR in two consecutive steps based on previously defined eligibility criteria and appraised the methodological quality using a measurement tool to assess SRs 2, AMSTAR 2. One author extracted data from both SRs and eligible studies; another checked this. We conducted meta-analyses to pool the study results. We report the results of the random-effects and common-effect models.RESULTS: We identified five SRs containing a total of 30 eligible studies, 16 with a low or moderate risk of bias. Our random-effects meta-analysis indicates an overall SMD effect of 0.63 [95% confidence interval (CI): -0.10 to 1.36] for loneliness and was unable to detect an overall effect of the interventions on social support [SMD: 0.00; 95% CI: -0.11 to 0.12].DISCUSSION: The results show interventions can potentially reduce loneliness in the non-institutionalized, community-dwelling and older population living at home. As confidence in the evidence is low, rigorous evaluation is recommended.REGISTRATION: International Prospective Register of SRs (PROSPERO): Registration number: CRD42021255625.
AB - BACKGROUND: Loneliness and social isolation have comparable health effects to widely acknowledged and established risk factors. Although old people are particularly affected, the effectiveness of interventions to prevent and/or mitigate social isolation and loneliness in the community-dwelling older adults is unclear. The aim of this review of reviews was to pool the findings of systematic reviews (SRs) addressing the question of effectiveness.METHODS: Ovid MEDLINE®, Health Evidence, Epistemonikos and Global Health (EBSCO) were searched from January 2017 to November 2021. Two reviewers independently assessed each SR in two consecutive steps based on previously defined eligibility criteria and appraised the methodological quality using a measurement tool to assess SRs 2, AMSTAR 2. One author extracted data from both SRs and eligible studies; another checked this. We conducted meta-analyses to pool the study results. We report the results of the random-effects and common-effect models.RESULTS: We identified five SRs containing a total of 30 eligible studies, 16 with a low or moderate risk of bias. Our random-effects meta-analysis indicates an overall SMD effect of 0.63 [95% confidence interval (CI): -0.10 to 1.36] for loneliness and was unable to detect an overall effect of the interventions on social support [SMD: 0.00; 95% CI: -0.11 to 0.12].DISCUSSION: The results show interventions can potentially reduce loneliness in the non-institutionalized, community-dwelling and older population living at home. As confidence in the evidence is low, rigorous evaluation is recommended.REGISTRATION: International Prospective Register of SRs (PROSPERO): Registration number: CRD42021255625.
KW - Loneliness
KW - social isolation
KW - older adults
KW - review of reviews
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85151574121&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36893335/
UR - https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=univsalzburg_wosstarter&SrcAuth=WosAPI&KeyUT=WOS:000945921800001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=WOS
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/66f9a060-839a-35d9-bd02-20c028845bbd/
U2 - 10.1093/eurpub/ckad006
DO - 10.1093/eurpub/ckad006
M3 - Review article
C2 - 36893335
SN - 1101-1262
VL - 33
SP - 235
EP - 241
JO - European Journal of Public Health
JF - European Journal of Public Health
IS - 2
M1 - ckad006
ER -