Theeke Laurie A, Mallow Jennifer A, Moore Julie, McBurney Ann, VanGilder Reyna, Barr Taura, Theeke Elliott, Rellick Stephanie, Petrone Ashley
School of Nursing, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA.
Department of Family Medicine, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA.
Open J Nurs. 2016 Aug;6(8):620-631. doi: 10.4236/ojn.2016.68066. Epub 2016 Aug 31.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of LISTEN (Loneliness Intervention) on loneliness, depression, physical health, systemic inflammation, and genomic expression in a sample of lonely, chronically ill, older adults.
This was a prospective, longitudinal randomized trial of LISTEN, a novel intervention based on theories of narrative and cognitive restructuring to target specific aspects of loneliness. Twenty-three older, lonely, chronically ill adults were recruited from a family medicine clinic in West Virginia. Participants were randomized to two groups, 13 in LISTEN group (Loneliness Intervention) and 10 in attention control (healthy aging education). Participants attended an enrollment session where they completed consent, survey data (including sociodemographics and chronic illness diagnoses), baseline physical measures, and blood sampling for gene expression analysis. After completing the 5 weekly sessions, all participants attended a 12 week post data collection meeting (17 weeks post-baseline) for survey completion, physical measures and blood sampling.
The results of this study show that the LISTEN intervention improves measures of physical and psychosocial health. Specifically, subjects enrolled in LISTEN showed reductions in systolic blood pressure, as well as decreased feelings of loneliness and depression. These changes may be due, in part, to a reduction in systemic inflammation, as measured by interleukin-2.
This study provides support for the use of LISTEN in reducing loneliness in chronically ill, older adults. Further, while some of our results are inconclusive, it provides rationale to expand our study population to evaluate the relationship between loneliness and systemic inflammation. In the future, enhancing knowledge about the relationships among loneliness, chronic illness, systemic inflammation, and gene expression of these particular targets, and how these relationships may change over time with intervention will inform translation of findings to clinical settings.
本研究旨在评估倾听（孤独干预）对孤独、慢性病老年患者样本中的孤独感、抑郁、身体健康、全身炎症和基因表达的有效性。
这是一项关于倾听的前瞻性纵向随机试验，倾听是一种基于叙事和认知重构理论的新型干预措施，旨在针对孤独的特定方面。从西弗吉尼亚州的一家家庭医学诊所招募了23名孤独、患有慢性病的老年人。参与者被随机分为两组，13人在倾听组（孤独干预组），10人在注意力控制组（健康老龄化教育组）。参与者参加了一次登记会议，在会上他们完成了知情同意、调查数据（包括社会人口统计学和慢性病诊断）、基线身体测量以及用于基因表达分析的血液采样。在完成每周5次的课程后，所有参与者参加了一次为期12周的数据收集后会议（基线后17周），以完成调查、身体测量和血液采样。
本研究结果表明，倾听干预改善了身体和心理社会健康指标。具体而言，参加倾听组的受试者收缩压降低，孤独感和抑郁感也有所减轻。这些变化可能部分归因于白细胞介素-2所测量的全身炎症的减少。
本研究为使用倾听来减少慢性病老年患者的孤独感提供了支持。此外，虽然我们的一些结果尚无定论，但它为扩大我们的研究人群以评估孤独感与全身炎症之间的关系提供了理论依据。未来，加强对孤独、慢性病、全身炎症以及这些特定靶点的基因表达之间关系的认识，以及这些关系如何随着时间推移通过干预而发生变化，将为将研究结果转化为临床应用提供信息。
