JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Immigrant older adults experience a sense of social isolation which negatively impacts their health. It is therefore important to develop interventions to reduce isolation and promote health. The application of the intervention mapping process resulted in the selection of 8 interventions that address determinants of isolation in older immigrants of East Asian, South Asian and Arab communities who are the fastest growing in Canada. However, it is unclear if the selected interventions are acceptable to the three communities. Acceptability is known to influence the uptake, engagement and adherence to interventions.

Objective:

The proposed study aims to 1) examine the acceptability of the selected interventions and 2) explore modifications that are required to enhance the cultural appropriateness of the interventions.

Methods:

A mixed-method, concurrent quantitative and qualitative, design will be used. Participants will be informed of each intervention; requested to rate its acceptability; and invited to a semi-structured interview to explore their perspectives on the cultural appropriateness and possible modifications of the intervention. Older immigrants will be recruited, using active and passive strategies, from 9 Canadian cities. They will be eligible to participate in the study if they are > 60 years, self-identify with the East Asian, South Asian or Arab communities, are community-dwelling and able to provide informed consent. The total sample size will be 450 to 800, balanced across immigrant communities and cities. Acceptability will be measured with 5 items adapted from the Treatment Acceptability and Preference instrument that demonstrated reliability and validity. Open-ended questions inquire about participants’ views on the cultural appropriateness of the intervention and modifications needed to enhance its acceptability. Descriptive statistics will be used to analyzed acceptability ratings. Responses to the open-ended questions will be content analyzed. Interventions with rating scores > 2 and qualitative comments indicating their fit with participants’ beliefs and values will be considered acceptable.

Results:

Data collection will begin soon. The project is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Conclusions:

Results will help understand which of the selected interventions are acceptable and which ones require modifications before evaluating them for their effectiveness in addressing the respective determinants of social isolation among Mandarin, Punjabi, and Arabic-speaking older immigrants. This information is critical in helping reduce older immigrant's isolation, foster social connectedness, and ultimately, improve quality of life among older immigrants.