The Impact of Social Phone Calls With Isolated Older Adults Receiving Protective Services for Abuse, Neglect and/or Exploitation

The purpose of this study is to see the the impact of social visits, through weekly phones calls, on quality of life outcomes of depression, anxiety, loneliness, isolation and self-rated health for older adults visited by Adult Protective Services (APS) for abuse, neglect and/or exploitation (ANE) and to also to determine the benefit of these conversations on the medical student's perspective of aging and ANE.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Senior Abuse
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Treatment

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 13
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Gabrielle M Hoyumpa; Phone Number: 210-867-0336; Email: Gabrielle.M.Hoyumpa@uth.tmc.edu
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Jason Burnett; Phone Number: (713) 500-3845; Email: Jason.Burnett@uth.tmc.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Houston, Texas, United States, 77030
      • Recruiting
      • The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
      • Contact: Gabrielle M Hoyumpa; Phone Number: 210-867-0336; Email: Gabrielle.M.Hoyumpa@uth.tmc.edu
      • Contact: Jason Burnett; Phone Number: (713) 500-3845; Email: Jason.Burnett@uth.tmc.edu

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 65 years and older (Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• recently visited by Texas Adult Protective Services for Abuse, Neglect and/or Exploitation
• living in Harris County or a surrounding county serviced by APS District 6
• substantiated elder mistreatment (i.e. psychological abuse, financial exploitation, sexual abuse, neglect, physical abuse) and/or self neglect
• provide a signed or verbal release agreeing to be contacted by the volunteers
• able to provide verbal consent to participate in the study

Exclusion Criteria:

• significant cognitive impairment or incapacity as determined by their inability to complete the consent steps
• Non-English-speaking

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Treatment

Other: Treatment; Following the collection of the baseline data, the study participant will be assigned to a volunteer(medical student) to begin the social phone calls. The first phone call will be scheduled to occur within one week of the consent and baseline assessments. A minimum of one social phone call will occur each week for 6-weeks. Each phone call is expected to last up to 1 hour.The calls will be unstructured and designed simply to engage in conversation with the participant. The length of the phone calls, days and times will be recorded by the volunteer along with a short journal entry describing the conversation topics and any information that stood out to the volunteer.At the end of the 6-weeks phone calls, a group session will be held with the volunteers to engage in a debriefing and narrative medicine session.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Social isolation as assessed by the patient-reported outcomes measurement information system (PROMIS) Social Isolation Scale	This is a 4 item questionnaire and each question is scored from 1(never) to 5(always) a higher number indicating more isolation	Baseline, 6 week follow up
Change in Anxiety as assessed by the Geriatric Anxiety Scale	This is a 10 item questionnaire and each question is scored form 0(not at all) to 3(most of the time),a higher number indicating more anxiety	Baseline, 6 week follow up
Change in Depression as assessed by the Geriatric Depression Scale Short Form	This is a 15 item questionnaire and each is answered either yes or no. One point is given for No to question 1, 5, 7, 11, 13 and one point for Yes to other questions. Normal ± 2 Mildly Depressed 7 ± 3 Very Depressed 12 ± 2	Baseline, 6 week follow up
Change in Loneliness as assessed by the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA ) Loneliness Scale	A 20-item scale that measures the subjective experience of loneliness on a four-point Likert scale. Participants rate each item as either O (I often feel this way),S (I sometimes feel this way), R (I rarely feel this way), N (I never feel this way).	Baseline, 6 week follow up
Change in perceived general health as assessed by the Self-Rated Health Question	The participant will rate their health as excellent, very good, good, fair or poor	Baseline, 6 week follow up

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
• Collaborators: UTHealth Consortium on Aging
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Gabrielle M Hoyumpa, The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): June 15, 2021
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): September 1, 2021
• Study Completion (Anticipated): November 1, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 24, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 24, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): August 30, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): August 30, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 24, 2021
• Last Verified: August 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: depression; anxiety; isolation; loneliness; adult protective services
• Other Study ID Numbers: HSC-MS-21-0411

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No