Reducing Later Life Loneliness: A Systematic Literature Review of Loneliness Interventions

Authors: Dhruv Sharma, Lynne Blair, Stephen Clune

Abstract:

Later life loneliness is a social issue that is increasing alongside an upward global population trend. As a society, one way that we have responded to this social challenge is through developing non-pharmacological interventions such as befriending services, activity clubs, meet-ups, etc. Through a systematic literature review, this paper suggests that currently there is an underrepresentation of radical innovation, and underutilization of digital technologies in developing loneliness interventions for older adults. This paper examines intervention studies that were published in English language, within peer reviewed journals between January 2005 and December 2014 across 4 electronic databases. In addition to academic databases, interventions found in grey literature in the form of websites, blogs, and Twitter were also included in the overall review. This approach yielded 129 interventions that were included in the study. A systematic approach allowed the minimization of any bias dictating the selection of interventions to study. A coding strategy based on a pattern analysis approach was devised to be able to compare and contrast the loneliness interventions. Firstly, interventions were categorized on the basis of their objective to identify whether they were preventative, supportive, or remedial in nature. Secondly, depending on their scope, they were categorized as one-to-one, community-based, or group based. It was also ascertained whether interventions represented an improvement, an incremental innovation, a major advance or a radical departure, in comparison to the most basic form of a loneliness intervention. Finally, interventions were also assessed on the basis of the extent to which they utilized digital technologies. Individual visualizations representing the four levels of coding were created for each intervention, followed by an aggregated visual to facilitate analysis. To keep the inquiry within scope and to present a coherent view of the findings, the analysis was primarily concerned the level of innovation, and the use of digital technologies. This analysis highlights a weak but positive correlation between the level of innovation and the use of digital technologies in designing and deploying loneliness interventions, and also emphasizes how certain existing interventions could be tweaked to enable their migration from representing incremental innovation to radical innovation for example. This analysis also points out the value of including grey literature, especially from Twitter, in systematic literature reviews to get a contemporary view of latest work in the area under investigation.

Keywords: Loneliness, ageing, innovation, digital.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3299821

References:

[1] N. Savikko, Loneliness of older people and elements of an intervention for its alleviation, Turku, Finland, University of Turku, 2008.
[2] J. J. Lynch, The broken heart: The medical consequences of loneliness, New York: Basic Books, 1977.
[3] I. Stuart-Hamilton, The psychology of ageing: An introduction, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2012.
[4] J. Ferreira-Alves, P. Magalhães, L. Viola and R. Simoes, "Loneliness in middle and old age: Demographics, perceived health, and social satisfaction as predictors," Archives of gerontology and geriatrics, pp. 613-623, 2014.
[5] L. Doman and A. Le Roux, "The causes of loneliness and the factors that contribute towards it: a literature review," Tydskrif Vir Geesteswetenskappe, pp. 216-228, 2010.
[6] K. Kaasa, "Loneliness in old age: Psychosocial and health predictors," Norsk epidemiologi, 1998.
[7] P. Demakakos, S. Nunn and J. Nazroo, "10. Loneliness, relative deprivation and life satisfaction," Retirement, health and relationships of the older population in England, p. 297, 2006.
[8] J. H. Sheldon, "The Social Medicine of Old Age. Report of an Enquiry in Wolverhampton," The Social Medicine of Old Age. Report of an Enquiry in Wolverhampton, 1948.
[9] P. A. Dykstra, "Older adult loneliness: myths and realities," European journal of ageing, pp. 91-100, 2009.
[10] R. Wilkes, "General philosophy and attitude to ageing," Soc Work Today, pp. 14-6, 1978.
[11] P. Daoust, "The joys of solitude, Health & Wellbeing," 2010.
[12] J. Beaumont, "Measuring National Well-being - Older people and loneliness," Office for National Statistics, UK, 2013.
[13] L. C. Hawkley, C. M. Masi, J. D. Berry and J. T. Cacioppo, "Loneliness is a unique predictor of age-related differences in systolic blood pressure," Psychology and aging, p. 152, 2006.
[14] A. Dean and N. Lin, "The stress-buffering role of social support: Problems and prospects for systematic investigation," The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, pp. 403-417, 1977.
[15] S. C. Tiwari, "Loneliness: A disease?," Indian journal of psychiatry, p. 320, 2013.
[16] D. A. Jones, C. R. Victor and N. J. Vetter, "The problem of loneliness in the elderly in the community: characteristics of those who are lonely and the factors related to loneliness," The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, pp. 136-139, 1985.
[17] P. Butler, Jeremy Hunt: UK should adopt Asian culture of caring for the elderly, The Guardian, 2013.
[18] BBC News, "Loneliness 'on the rise among elderly'," 3 May 2014. (Online). Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27247418.
[19] Age UK, "Later Life in the United Kingdom," 2016.
[20] J. Bingham, "Record numbers reach retirement age as baby boomers turn 65," 25 September 2012. (Online). Available: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/pensions/9563647/Record-numbers-reach-retirement-age-as-baby-boomers-turn-65.html.
[21] S. Marsh, "Fourteen ways councils can help combat loneliness," 14 April 2014. (Online). Available: https://www.theguardian.com/local-government-network/2014/apr/14/fourteen-ways-councils-can-help-combat-loneliness.
[22] Campaign to End Loneliness website, "Loneliness and isolation: Guidance for Local Authorities and Commissioners," 2013. (Online). Available: https://campaigntoendloneliness.org/guidance/.
[23] J. O'Connor, "Age-related loneliness is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode," 2014. (Online). Available: http://insidetime.co.uk/articleview.asp?a=1773&c=agerelated_loneliness_is_a_ticking_time_bomb_waiting_to_explode.
[24] F. Murphy, "Loneliness: a challenge for nurses caring for older people," Nursing older people, pp. 22-25, 2006.
[25] M. Cattan, M. White, J. Bond and A. Learmouth, "Preventing social isolation and loneliness among older people: a systematic review of health promotion interventions," Ageing and society, pp. 41-67, 2005.
[26] G. K. Auslander and H. Litwin, "The parameters of network intervention: A social work application," The Social Service Review, pp. 305-318, 1987.
[27] C. M. Masi, H.-Y. Chen, L. C. Hawkley and J. T. Cacioppo, "A meta-analysis of interventions to reduce loneliness," Personality and Social Psychology Review, pp. 219-266, 2011.
[28] K. Windle, J. Francis and C. Coomber, "Preventing loneliness and social isolation: interventions and outcomes," London: Social Care Institute for Excellence, pp. 1-16, 2011.
[29] J. T. Cacioppo, M. E. Hughes, L. J. Waite, L. C. Hawkley and R. A. Thisted, "Loneliness as a specific risk factor for depressive symptoms: cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses," Psychology and aging, p. 140, 2006.
[30] V. Burholt and T. Scharf, "Poor health and loneliness in later life: the role of depressive symptoms, social resources, and rural environments," The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, pp. 311-324, 2014.
[31] C. Alexander, S. Ishikawa and M. Silverstein, "Pattern languages," Center for Environmental Structure, 1977.
[32] N. Mead, H. Lester, C. Chew-Graham, L. Gask and P. Bower, "Effects of befriending on depressive symptoms and distress: systematic review and meta-analysis," The British Journal of Psychiatry, pp. 96-101, 2010.
[33] Age UK, "Safeguarding the Convoy. A call to action from the Campaign to End Loneliness," Age UK, 2011.
[34] J. Langrish, M. Gibbons, W. G. Evans and F. R. Jevons, Wealth from knowledge: Studies of innovation in industry, Springer, 1972.
[35] D. A. Norman and R. Verganti, "Incremental and Radical Innovation: Design Research vs. Technology and Meaning Change," Design Issues, pp. 78-96, 2012.
[36] M. Baxter-Reynolds, "Everyone is 'going digital' but just what does that mean?," 23 April 2014. (Online). Available: https://www.zdnet.com/article/everyone-is-going-digital-but-just-what-does-that-mean/.
[37] Q. Mahood, D. Van Eerd and E. Irvin, "Searching for grey literature for systematic reviews: challenges and benefits," Research synthesis methods, pp. 221-234, 2014.
[38] Hage, J., Restoring the innovative Edge: Driving the evolution of science and technology. 2011: Stanford University Press.