Citizen-Led Integrated Care in Rural Depopulation Areas: Addressing Depression and Frailty in Older Adults

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Public Health
• Community Health

Background:

• Rural Korean areas face significant challenges due to super-aging populations and depopulation.
• These demographic shifts create critical gaps in essential health and social care services for older adults.
• A citizen participatory approach was employed to address these specific care deficits.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of a citizen-led intervention on the health and well-being of older adults in rural settings.
• To examine changes in frailty and depressive symptoms within this demographic during the intervention period.
• To assess the effectiveness of a community-based care model in resource-limited, aging populations.

Main Methods:

• A single-arm, pre-post quasi-experimental design was utilized over a 12-week period.
• Local citizens were trained and engaged as care providers.
• Intervention components included personalized care planning, health education, tailored community activities, and AI-assisted health monitoring calls.

Main Results:

• The intervention demonstrated more pronounced positive changes among vulnerable subgroups, specifically older adults with frailty or depressive symptoms.
• Older adults with frailty showed a decrease in depressive symptoms, while those with depressive symptoms experienced a slower increase in frailty.
• Observed patterns suggest a bidirectional relationship between frailty and depression, with changes in one domain coinciding with changes in the other.

Conclusions:

• Citizen-led care interventions can yield noticeable short-term benefits for vulnerable older adults in rural areas.
• Citizen participation offers a viable strategy for enhancing social support and monitoring in depopulating rural communities.
• This approach presents a potentially feasible and sustainable model for care systems in aging, resource-limited environments.