Interventions to Reduce Social Isolation and Loneliness Among Older People Research Proposal

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Interventions to reduce social isolation and loneliness among older people: an integrative reviewIntroductionOlder adults tend to suffer loneliness and social isolation in the later years of life, affecting mental and physical health if unaddressed. A recent review on the impact of loneliness and social isolation on physical and mental health identified various negative consequences such as depression, cardiovascular disease, a decline in the quality of life, decline in cognitive function, and a higher mortality rate (Courtin & Knapp, 2017). Older people identified as chronically lonely are also evidenced to register fewer hours of exercise, possess a greater number of chronic illnesses, rely heavily on tobacco use, have higher depression scores, and require more nursing home stays than others not suffering from loneliness (Malcolm, Frost & Cowie, 2019).There is still very little knowledge on the mechanics of how loneliness and social isolation affect health. Still, the negative effects on health evidenced are usually associated with the influences these factors have on health behaviors, sleep, and social connectedness (Courtin & Knapp, 2017). The impact of loneliness and social isolation is usually exacerbated in older people due to certain conditions such as declining physical health, residual grief from the death of a spouse or a partner, the higher likelihood of living alone, and a limited number of confiding relationships.A combination of health factors and other situational factors can lead to loneliness in older adults. This condition instills a perceived lack of companionship and a decline in the quantity or quality of a previously established relationship with a person or a community. Health factors usually associated with causing loneliness in older adults are chronic diseases that impede mental functioning or cause cognitive decline. Such diseases can reduce the individual’s ability to communicate efficiently and may cause lapses in memory, which affect the individual’s ability to recall recent interactions with others (Victor et al., 2020).Situational factors can include the lack of a confidant, a recent move to a new environment such as a care facility, a recent death of a loved one, and spending extended periods alone and unoccupied (O’Rourke, Collins & Sidani, 2018). Other factors that can reduce loneliness are the size of an individual’s existing social network, the frequency of social contact received, and the quantity of social support received from others.Statement of the ProblemThere are specific population groups whose members are highly prone to suffer from loneliness and social isolation, such as refugees, young care-leavers, and mentally ill people. Older adults are also identified as one of the population groups vulnerable to loneliness, but with a higher possibility of suffering from it due to underlying factors such as losing loved ones, loss of mobility, or loss of income (Age UK Oxfordshire, 2011).Due to the high risk of this population group, there has been a greater focus on accounting for this group’s members. Developed countries such as the UK maintain accurate statistics of the population of this aging group.

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In the UK, persons aged 60 and above currently make up approximately 20 percent of the entire population and this value is expected to rise by 4 percent by the year 2030 (Windle, Francis & Coomber, 2011).In the subsequent 2 decades, the number of the population aged above 80 is expected to triple, and those aged above 90 will double. An examination of the prevalence of loneliness and social isolation among the aged population indicates that between 5 – 16 percent report loneliness, while about 12 percent feel socially isolated (Machielse & Duyndam, 2020).Loneliness and social isolation are considered issues of public health, and research has highlighted the effect social relationships can have on…

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…at repeatedly yielding the same results under constant conditions (Kumar, 2018).All coders will have to be trained and have codebooks before the process of analysis. The training will ensure that all coders share a mental model of the skill, construct, and the phenomenon they will be coding. Lack of stability during the coding can result in coders arriving at different judgments, affecting the study’s reliability and validity. To reduce this risk, recoding can be done at a later date.Reproducibility is not a typical goal for qualitative research (Assarroudi et al., 2018), but for proposal content analysis, codes defined before and during the analysis will retain their meanings. The coders will embrace the reproducibility of their codebook to maintain a detailed audit trail, including descriptions of the methods used in creating and defining the codes and measures taken to ensure inter-rater reliability.Coder fatigue is a threat to trustworthiness. The coders will be required to maintain a reflective journal for writing analytical memos as a measure of maintaining focus. Memos will capture insights of the researchers on their work. Additionally, occasional talks with the coders that may include explanations on the rationale of a piece of information on the analysis will be embraced to mitigate coders’ fatigue. Lastly, sufficient duration of time will be allocated for analysis allowing coders to work reasonably.Limitations and Ethical ConsiderationsThe study acknowledges that while care was taken to ensure conclusive results, it is possible that a few studies might not have been indexed or other missing from the data. The study employed an integrative review methodology, thus unintentionally combining the results statistically; therefore, the result should be interpreted with caution.The study will observe the stipulated guidelines by the University Institute Review Board on good scientific practice and research ethics in regards to writing ethics and standards, including plagiarism….....

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