Caring Calls: A Weekly Phone Call Intervention and the Correlation with Loneliness in Rural Dwelling Adults

Purpose: This pilot study’s aim was to examine the impact of weekly phone calls from interprofessional students on loneliness in rural dwelling adults. Design: A pretest and posttest quasi-experimental design was utilized. Setting: The intervention was based in southeastern Minnesota, although the participants could have lived anywhere. Zoom for Healthcare © was utilized, and students were able to make the phone calls from their homes, therefore, no travel was necessary. Subjects: The subjects were rural dwelling adults (over the age 18 years old). Intervention: Interprofessional students made weekly social phone calls to rural dwelling adults over ten weeks. Measures: The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Loneliness Scale was used to compare the level of loneliness prior to the intervention to after the intervention. Results: A Wilcoxon non-parametric test was conducted to analyze results. The overall average of the scores was -0.39, showing there was a decrease in loneliness over the ten weeks among participants, although not statistically significant (p = 0.25) Conclusion: Although there was a decrease in loneliness among the participants, the sample size was small, and the results were not statistically significant. More research is needed on this topic to determine if phone calls from students can decrease loneliness in rural-dwelling adults

Activities of Daily Living and Post Hospitalized Rural Elderly Person\u27s Home Help

This study examined the functional status of thirty persons from 75 to 92 years of age following hospitalization. The study was conducted in a rural community. Data were collected on Katz Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs), and home help received. Home help received was classified as formal or informal. The greatest areas of dependence in ADLs were bathing and dressing. Eighty-three percent of subjects were in the two most independent categories of function in ADLs. The mean Lawton IADL score was 4.7 (± 2.1). Areas of greatest dependence in IADLs were transportation, shopping and laundry. The majority of assistance needed for ADLs was for the function of bathing. Most subjects needing bathing assistance received this help from a formal source. AH subjects stated their ADL needs were being met. The majority of home help received for IADL functions came from informal sources. Two subjects identified unmet needs with aspects of IADLs. Using Kendall correlation coefficients, a significant relationship was found between Katz ADL score and the home help received with ADLs. A significant inverse relationship was found between Lawton IADL score and home help received with IADLs. The relationship between Katz ADL score and Lawton IADL score was also significant