Understanding the psychological experiences of loneliness in later life: qualitative protocol to inform technology development

Abstract

Objectives: Loneliness is a public health issue impacting the health and well-being of older adults. This protocol focuses on understanding the psychological experiences of loneliness in later life to inform technology development as part of the ‘Design for health ageing: a smart system to detect loneliness in older people’ (DELONELINESS) study.

Methods and analysis: Data will be collected from semi-structured interviews with up to 60 people over the age of 65 on their experiences of loneliness and preferences for sensor-based technologies. The interviews will be audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed using a thematic codebook approach on NVivo software.

Ethics and dissemination: This study has received ethical approval by Research Ethics Committee’s at King’s College London (reference number: LRS/DP-21/22-33376) and the University of Sussex (reference number: ER/JH878/1). All participants will be required to provide informed consent. Results will be used to inform technology development within the DELONELINESS study and will be disseminated in peer-reviewed publications and conferences.

Metadata

Authors/Creators:

Rees, J
Liu, W
Ourselin, S
Shi, Y https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3891-7175
Probst, F
Antonelli, M
Tinker, A
Matcham, F

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Keywords:

geriatric medicine; mental health; protocols & guidelines; public health; qualitative research

Dates: