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

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

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2022.948506

DOI=10.3389/fmed.2022.948506

ISSN=2296-858X

ABSTRACT=Background: A 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.

Methods: A 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.

Results: The 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.

Discussion: This 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).