Effects of Telenursing on the Loneliness of the Elderly

Loneliness is one of the problems experienced by the aging population, and the lack of social communication plays a major role in the emergence of loneliness. This study was conducted to determine the effects of telenursing on the loneliness of the elderly.

This field trial was conducted on 100 elderly people over 60 years of age who were selected by convenience sampling from the clients of Gonabad (Iran) community health centers during 2017. The elderly participants were randomly assigned to 2 groups of 50 people, intervention and control. Then, the demographic information questionnaire, the Informant Questionnaire for Cognitive Decline in the Elderly, and Dehshiri et al.'s Loneliness Scale were completed. The intervention group received face-to-face training by the researcher for 2 hours. There was no intervention for the control group, and the elderly received routine care from the family health unit. After the face-to-face meeting, phone calls were made by the researcher to the intervention group for 12 weeks. One month after the end of the intervention, the questionnaires were completed again by the two groups and evaluated and compared.

The mean (standard deviation) score of loneliness was 60.82±21.07 and 57.48±18.76 before the intervention in the intervention and control groups, respectively, and this value after the intervention was 35.06±14.20 and 61.40±18.72, respectively, in the intervention and control groups. After the intervention, a statistically significant difference was found in terms of a reduction in the loneliness score of the elderly in the intervention group compared to the control group (P<0.05).

This study showed that telenursing was effective in reducing the loneliness of the elderly.