Health Support for At-Risk Older Adults during COVID-19

Abstract

Older adults are highly susceptible to COVID-19 infection and at the highest risk for severe disease and death. Yet, older adults lacked access to accurate and easy-to-use COVID-19 information and support early in the pandemic. This prospective, experimental cohort study sought to examine whether older adults could be engaged during the pandemic through a community partner and if a low-touch intervention, designed with health literacy best practices, could positively impact COVID-19 knowledge, mitigation behaviors, telehealth/doctor visits, exercise, and loneliness. A senior resource kit was distributed to older adults sheltering at home through food assistance program agents from October 2020 to February 2021; the kit was developed using health literacy best practices. Simple random assignment was used to divide program participants into treatment and control groups. Both groups received senior kits, but the treatment group also received telephonic health coaching. The primary outcome was COVID-19 knowledge and mitigation behaviors as derived from self-reported surveys at baseline and after four months. Secondary outcomes included a telehealth or doctor visit, exercise frequency, and a loneliness score (3-Item Loneliness Scale). Health literacy was assessed using the BRIEF screening tool. Ninety-eight older adults consented to participate in the study and 87 completed the study (88.7% completion rate). Participants had moderate clinical risk, one-third preferred the Spanish language, and 52% were categorized as having inadequate or marginal health literacy. Significant changes were found for increasing COVID-19 mitigation behaviors and the frequency of exercise across the cohort, but not for COVID-19 knowledge, telehealth visits, or decreasing loneliness. Conclusions: Partnering with a trusted entity in the community is a feasible and important strategy to reach older adults during a lockdown and provide them with easy-to-read health information and resources. If the time horizon had been longer, improvements in other outcome variables may have been achieved.

Telehealth Utilization and Good Care among Informal Caregivers: Health Information National Trends Survey, 2022

“…Those who responded "yes, by video"; "yes, by phone call (voice only with no video)"; or "Yes, some by video and some by phone call" were defined as telehealth recipients. It is worth noting that telehealth includes a variety of digital communications, notably through video and/or audio communications [2].…”

“…Telehealth, the provision of healthcare services through virtual technology, has been significantly promoted since the COVID-19 pandemic [1], but its use and quality can be influenced by sociodemographics and other factors [2]. Telehealth allows patients and caregivers to access medical care, consult with healthcare professionals, and receive timely guidance while minimizing the risk of infection and eliminating transportation and childcare challenges [2]. Informal caregivers play an important role in ensuring the well-being of those they care for, usually family members and friends [3,4].…”