Exploring the Impact of a New Intervention to Increase Participation of Frail Older Adults in Meaningful Leisure Activities

ABSTRACT

Many frail older adults have difficulty maintaining social participation. We developed an innovative, personalized intervention to help frail older adults pursue meaningful leisure activities through the use of compensatory strategies. This pre-experimental pilot study conducted with 10 community-dwelling frail older adults (≥80 years) showed that the intervention improved their knowledge regarding the compensatory strategies learned and their participation in meaningful leisure activities. However, results also showed a decrease in feelings of well-being. This study provides promising results to support the implementation of an innovative intervention tailored to the needs of frail seniors and designed to foster their participation. However, further research is needed to improve our understanding of the impact of the intervention on well-being and explain the results obtained.

KEYWORDS:

• Compensatory strategies
• frail older adults
• leisure

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Modou Sene (statistician), Andrée-Anne Lajoie (research assistant, intervention), Karine Bélanger, Stephanie Stocco, Natasa Obradovic, and Eugénie C. Pinsonnault (research assistant, manuscript editing) as well as the study participants.

Funding

This study was supported by the Réseau Québécois de Recherche sur le Vieillissement/Quebec Network for Research on Aging (Interaction and social support axis).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Réseau Québécois de Recherche sur le Vieillissement/Quebec Network for Research on Aging (Interaction and social support axis).