Objectives

To determine whether peer companionship delivered by an aging services agency to socially-disconnected older adult primary care patients was associated with improvement in suicidal ideation depression, anxiety, and psychological connectedness.

Design

Pragmatic, nonblinded, parallel-group, randomized controlled trial comparing peer companionship, The Senior Connection (TSC), to care-as-usual (CAU).

Setting

Lifespan, a nonmedical, community-based aging services agency.

Participants

Adult primary care patients ages 60 years or older who endorsed feelings of loneliness or being a burden on others.

Intervention

TSC was delivered by Lifespan volunteers who provided supportive visits and phone calls in the subjects’ homes. CAU involved no peer companion assignment.

Measurements

The primary outcome was suicidal ideation assessed by the Geriatric Suicide Ideation Scale; secondary outcomes were depression, anxiety, and feelings of belonging and being a burden on others. Data were collected at baseline, 3-, 6-, and 12-months.

Results

Subjects (55% female) had a mean age of 71 years. There was no difference between groups in change in suicidal ideation or belonging. Subjects randomized to TSC had greater reduction in depression (PHQ-9; 2.33 point reduction for TSC versus 1.32 for CAU, p = 0.05), anxiety (GAD-7; TSC 1.52 versus CAU 0.28, p = 0.03), and perceived burden on others (INQ; 0.46 TSC versus 0.09 CAU, p <0.01).

Conclusions

TSC was superior to CAU for improving depression, anxiety, and perceived burden, but not suicidal ideation. Although effect sizes were small, the low-cost and nationwide availability of peer companionship justify further examination of its effectiveness and scalability in improving mental health outcomes of socially disconnected older adults.