Scientific monitoring of a community project to strengthen social participation in older people

The negative impact of loneliness is comparable to the side effects of smoking, lack of exercise, or obesity and is therefore of importance to society as a whole. For example, loneliness increases the risk of cardiovascular disease by 27% and the risk of death by 26%. Further, the risk of loneliness increases with age. Due to increasing life expectancy and the associated increase in the proportion of the population over the age of 60, social isolation and loneliness are a key challenge. In this applied research project, the Centre for Evaluation supports the evidence-based practice of projects to strengthen social participation in older people. This is done on the basis of the transdisciplinary model of evidence-based practice (Satterfield, 2009) and the Knowledge To Action Framework (Graham, 2009) in cooperation with the "Tut gut!" initiative. The research team will identify optimization requirements for projects of interest, promote motivation for change, increase time resources, and raise capacity of relevant project personnel to combat potential barriers to evidence-based practice. Building on this, the research team will develop and implement support services for project-specific strengthening of evidence-based practice. Possible support services include knowledge transfer, understanding the needs of target groups and key people, or involving target groups and key people in project development. This project will be implemented from November 2021 to December 2023 with funds from the Lower Austrian Health and Social Fund.