| Summary: | Introduction: The number of older adults is increasing worldwide, as a result their need for
institutionalized care is rising. One of the problems older adults experience when going to a
nursing home is loneliness. Loneliness affects the person quality of life, so it is vital to help
prevent it with appropriate interventions.
Objective: To explore the different kind of interventions to prevent loneliness of older adults
living in nursing homes.
Methodology: This systematic review used three databases (PubMed, CINAHL, and PsycInfo)
and searched for articles from 2010 to 2020 using search terms like “older adults”, “prevent”,
“loneliness”, and “intervention”. From an initial 124 articles, 16 articles were selected at the end.
Results: Two main themes were found: person-to-person/group interventions and technological
interventions. All interventions showed positive results in reducing the perception of loneliness.
Group interventions showed high success on reduction of loneliness. For technological
intervention, the use of a pet robot created an atmosphere where residents socialize.
Videoconferencing and messaging showed the need of a third party implication.
Conclusion: Interventions found in this review are an effective way of alleviating loneliness even
if interventions were vaguely described, and there was not follow up for long-term effectiveness.
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