Frontiers in Medicine (Oct 2022)

Isolating together during COVID-19: Results from the Telehealth Intervention Program for older adults

  • Harmehr Sekhon,
  • Harmehr Sekhon,
  • Harmehr Sekhon,
  • Harmehr Sekhon,
  • Paola Lavin,
  • Paola Lavin,
  • Blanca Vacaflor,
  • Blanca Vacaflor,
  • Christina Rigas,
  • Christina Rigas,
  • Christina Rigas,
  • Karin Cinalioglu,
  • Karin Cinalioglu,
  • Karin Cinalioglu,
  • Chien-Lin Su,
  • Katie Bodenstein,
  • Katie Bodenstein,
  • Katie Bodenstein,
  • Elena Dikaios,
  • Allana Goodman,
  • Florence Coulombe Raymond,
  • Marim Ibrahim,
  • Magnus Bein,
  • Johanna Gruber,
  • Jade Se,
  • Neeti Sasi,
  • Chesley Walsh,
  • Chesley Walsh,
  • Rim Nazar,
  • Cezara Hanganu,
  • Cezara Hanganu,
  • Sonia Berkani,
  • Sonia Berkani,
  • Isabelle Royal,
  • Alessandra Schiavetto,
  • Karl Looper,
  • Karl Looper,
  • Cyrille Launay,
  • Cyrille Launay,
  • Emily G. McDonald,
  • Dallas Seitz,
  • Sanjeev Kumar,
  • Olivier Beauchet,
  • Bassam Khoury,
  • Stephane Bouchard,
  • Bruno Battistini,
  • Pascal Fallavollita,
  • Marc Miresco,
  • Marie-Andrée Bruneau,
  • Ipsit Vahia,
  • Syeda Bukhari,
  • Syeda Bukhari,
  • Soham Rej,
  • Soham Rej,
  • Soham Rej

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2022.948506
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9

Abstract

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BackgroundA pressing challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond is to provide accessible and scalable mental health support to isolated older adults in the community. The Telehealth Intervention Program for Older Adults (TIP-OA) is a large-scale, volunteer-based, friendly telephone support program designed to address this unmet need.MethodsA prospective cohort study of 112 TIP-OA participants aged ≥60 years old was conducted in Quebec, Canada (October 2020–June 2021). The intervention consisted of weekly friendly phone calls from trained volunteers. The primary outcome measures included changes in scores of stress, depression, anxiety, and fear surrounding COVID-19, assessed at baseline, 4 and 8-weeks. Additional subgroup analyses were performed with participants with higher baseline scores.ResultsThe subgroup of participants with higher baseline depression scores (PHQ9 ≥10) had significant improvements in depression scores over the 8-week period measured [mean change score = −2.27 (±4.76), 95%CI (−3.719, −0.827), p = 0.003]. Similarly, participants with higher baseline anxiety scores (GAD7 ≥10) had an improvement over the same period, which, approached significance (p = 0.06). Moreover, despite peaks in the pandemic and related stressors, our study found no significant (p ≥ 0.09) increase in stress, depression, anxiety or fear of COVID-19 scores.DiscussionThis scalable, volunteer-based, friendly telephone intervention program was associated with decreased scores of depression and anxiety in older adults who reported higher scores at baseline (PHQ 9 ≥10 and GAD7 ≥10).

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