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=9 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).