Strengthening Social Capital to Address Isolation and Loneliness in Long-term Care Facilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Protocol for a Systematic Review of Research on Information and Communication Technologies

Idrissa Beogo; Drissa Sia; Eric Tchouaket Nguemeleu; Junqiang Zhao; Marie-Pierre Gagnon; Josephine Etowa

doi:10.2196/36269

Strengthening Social Capital to Address Isolation and Loneliness in Long-term Care Facilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Protocol for a Systematic Review of Research on Information and Communication Technologies

JMIR Res Protoc. 2022 Mar 24;11(3):e36269. doi: 10.2196/36269.

Authors

Idrissa Beogo^{1

2}, Drissa Sia^{3

4}, Eric Tchouaket Nguemeleu^{3

5}, Junqiang Zhao¹, Marie-Pierre Gagnon⁶, Josephine Etowa¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
² College of Nursing, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
³ Département des sciences infirmières, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Saint-Jerôme, QC, Canada.
⁴ Département de médecine sociale et préventive, École de santé publique, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada.
⁵ Département de gestion, d'évaluation et de politique de santé, École de santé publique, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada.
⁶ Faculté des sciences infirmières, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada.

PMID: 35275841
PMCID: PMC8955240
DOI: 10.2196/36269

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had the greatest impact in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) by disproportionately harming older adults and heightening social isolation and loneliness (SIL). Living in close quarters with others and in need of around-the-clock assistance, interactions with older adults, which were previously in person, have been replaced by virtual chatting using information and communication technologies (ICTs). ICT applications such as FaceTime, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams video chatting have been overwhelmingly used by families to maintain residents' social capital and subsequently reduce their SIL.

Objective: Because of the lack of substantive knowledge on this ever-increasing form of social communication, this systematic review intends to synthesize the effects of ICT interventions to address SIL among residents in LTCFs during the COVID-19 period.

Methods: We will include studies published in Chinese, English, and French from December 2019 onwards. Beyond the traditional search strategy approach, 4 of the 12 electronic databases to be queried will be in Chinese. We will include quantitative and intervention studies as well as qualitative and mixed methods designs. Using a 2-person approach, the principal investigator and one author will blindly screen eligible articles, extract data, and assess risk of bias. In order to improve the first round of screening, a pilot-tested algorithm will be used. Disagreements will be resolved through discussion with a third author. Results will be presented as structured summaries of the included studies. We plan to conduct a meta-analysis if sufficient data are available.

Results: A total of 1803 articles have been retrieved to date. Queries of the Chinese databases are ongoing. The systematic review and subsequent manuscript will be completed by the fall of 2022.

Conclusions: ICT applications have become a promising avenue to reduce SIL by providing a way to maintain communication between LTCF residents and their families and will certainly remain in the post-COVID-19 period. This review will investigate and describe context-pertinent and high-quality programs and initiatives to inform, at the macro level, policy makers and researchers, frontline managers, and families. These methods will remain relevant in the post-COVID-19 era.

International registered report identifier (irrid): DERR1-10.2196/36269.

Keywords: ICT, long-term care facilities, COVID-19, social isolation, loneliness, pandemic, implementation sciences, protocol; aging; health care; healthcare; healthcare sector; information technology; long-term care; mental health; nursing home; older adults; virtual care; virtual communication.

©Idrissa Beogo, Drissa Sia, Eric Tchouaket Nguemeleu, Junqiang Zhao, Marie-Pierre Gagnon, Josephine Etowa. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (https://www.researchprotocols.org), 24.03.2022.