Design, implementation and evaluation of informal home care support intervention program for lonely older adults in the community: Protocol for a feasibility study

Background Providing lonely older adults with informal home care services is important to improving their health and quality of life. The study aims to evaluate the feasibility of design, implementation and evaluation of an informal home care support intervention program (HoSIP) for community-dwelling lonely older adults in Gorgan, Iran. Method/design This feasibility study is a mixed-method with a concurrent nested design. Lonely older adults will be enrolled as the HoSIP intervention group and will receive 12-weeks of informal home care service by peer supporters. The purpose of this feasibility study is to determine the recruitment capability and resulting sample characteristics, data collection procedure and outcome measures, the acceptability and suitability of the intervention and study procedures, the resource and ability to manage the study and intervention, and preliminary evaluation of participant response to intervention. Primary outcomes including participant feelings of loneliness, quality of life, general health, social network, social support, and self-care ability, will be assessed at baseline and post-intervention for the intervention and control groups. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted immediately after the intervention using content qualitative approach to describe participants' experiences with HoSIP. Discussion Through this study we will examine the feasibility of delivering informal home care services to community-dwelling lonely older adults in a developing country through employing a concurrent nested mixed-method design.