Evaluation design for a complex intervention program targeting loneliness in non-institutionalized elderly Dutch...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Gerontology
• Intervention Science

Background:

• Loneliness is a significant issue for non-institutionalized elderly individuals.
• Complex public health interventions require evaluation designs that account for individual and environmental factors.
• Intervention components may interact and be influenced by context-specific implementation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a rationale for an evaluation design for a complex intervention program targeting loneliness in community-dwelling older adults.
• To develop an evaluation strategy that addresses the complexity of real-life public health interventions.
• To assess both the overall program effectiveness and the contribution of individual components.

Main Methods:

• A logic model of change was used to guide the evaluation design.
• A quasi-experimental pre-test post-test design with a control community was employed to evaluate overall intervention effectiveness.
• A complementary study evaluated individual intervention components focusing on delivery, reach, acceptance, and short-term outcomes using project records and surveys.

Main Results:

• The evaluation design integrates two complementary study types to address intervention complexity.
• The quasi-experimental design allows for assessment of changes in loneliness prevalence and determinants in the elderly population.
• The second study provides data on the performance and impact of individual intervention elements.

Conclusions:

• Combining overall effectiveness evaluation with component-level analysis offers a robust approach to assessing complex interventions.
• This integrated evaluation strategy can determine the effectiveness of the total intervention and the specific contributions of its parts.
• The proposed design provides a framework for evaluating similar complex public health initiatives targeting older adults.