A Telehealth Lifestyle Intervention for Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Quality of Life and Occupational Performance in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: a Telehealth Lifestyle Pilot

The purpose of this study is to evaluate if an occupational therapy lifestyle program for community-dwelling older adults delivered individually through a telehealth platform can produce comparable outcomes in health-related qualify of life and occupational performance as found in studies that used a longer duration and group intervention.

Eighty percent of older adult Americans live with at least one chronic disease and 70% manage two or more. Chronic diseases pose significant health and economic costs to individual older adults, burden families due to increased care dependency, and cause substantial strain on the healthcare system. Older adults residing in rural and non-urban communities in particular face additional health disparities due to lack of access or fewer options for health care services and providers. As one solution, telehealth can increase ease and access to health care services, deliver quality outcomes and comparable levels of satisfaction, and reduce costs for both the patient and the health care system. This quantitative pilot study will use a quasi-experimental approach with a single-group, pretest-posttest design to evaluate the effects of the Holistic Occupational Performance Empowerment (HOPE) lifestyle program to promote health-related quality of life and occupational performance of community-dwelling older adults.

Investigators anticipate recruiting 12 to 15 English-speaking, independent community-dwelling adults 65 years or older living in non-urban communities within 40 miles of Great Falls, Montana or Oregon City, Oregon. The participants will receive 1 goal-setting session in-person, 6 training sessions via telehealth, and 1 post-intervention debriefing session in-person across 8 weeks; each session will be 45-60 minutes. Each week will comprise one or more lifestyle topics that are based on the twelve modules described in the Lifestyle Redesign®️ manual. The sessions involve an introduction to a lifestyle topic with the investigator providing verbal and visual education, collaborative discussion and reflection, review of a participant's self-identified goals, recommendations and homework, and scheduling of the session for the subsequent week. By addressing health disparities and expanding access, occupational therapists will be more intentional in their delivery of telehealth lifestyle interventions and contribute to chronic disease prevention and reduction.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adults 65 years or older
• English-speaking
• Independent community-dwellers
• Living in non-urban communities within 40 miles of Great Falls, Montana or Oregon City, Oregon
• Self-reported adequate vision, with or without corrective lenses, to view and read paper-based and electronic materials with a minimum 12-point font size
• Demonstrate reasonable technology skills (e.g., access email and telehealth platform) with or without the help of a family member or caregiver
• Have consistent access to an electronic device that has Wi-Fi connection

Exclusion Criteria:

• Require any human assistance with activities of daily living
• Score of less than 12 out of 15 on 5-minute telephone version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment