Table 1.
Participants’ baseline characteristics.
| Characteristics | Intervention (n=84) | Control (n=54) | P value | ||
| Age (years), mean (95% CI) | 72.31 (70.38-74.24) | 71.85 (69.86-73.85) | .74 | ||
| Gender, n (%) | .70 | ||||
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Male | 37 (44) | 22 (41) |
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|
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Female | 47 (56) | 32 (59) |
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| Ethnicity, n (%) | .57 | ||||
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Chinese | 67 (80) | 40 (74) |
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|
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Indian | 8 (10) | 5 (9) |
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|
Malay | 9 (11) | 9 (17) |
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| Education, n (%) | .53 | ||||
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No formal education | 23 (27) | 12 (22) |
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|
|
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Primary | 34 (40) | 23 (43) |
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Secondary | 22 (26) | 18 (34) |
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|
|
Diploma and higher | 5 (6) | 1 (2) |
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| Not married (single, separated, divorced, or widowed), n (%) | 24 (29) | 19 (35) | .41 | ||
| Living alone, n (%) | 50 (60) | 26 (48) | .19 | ||
| Housing type A, n (%) | .21 | ||||
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Rental | 66 (79) | 47 (87) |
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Self-owned | 18 (21) | 7 (13) |
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| Housing type B, n (%) | .25 | ||||
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1-room | 52 (62) | 30 (56) |
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2-room | 21 (25) | 20 (37) |
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3-room and above | 11 (13) | 4 (7) |
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| Have a mobile phone at baseline, n (%) | 72 (86) | 47 (87) | .83 | ||
| Have a smartphone at baseline, n (%) | 51 (61) | 39 (74) | .12 | ||
| Digital literacy score, mean (95% CI) | 3.77 (2.94-4.93) | 5.09 (4.15-6.04) | .04 | ||
| LSNS-6a score, mean (95% CI) | 11.07 (9.83-12.31) | 12.36 (10.31-14.41) | .29 | ||
| Loneliness (UCLA-3b score=6-9), n (%) | 23 (27) | 10 (19) | .23 | ||
| Personal Wellbeing Score (n=120), mean (95% CI) | 8.42 (7.78-9.06) | 7.47 (6.51-8.44) | .10 | ||
| EQ-5D Utility (n=135), mean (95% CI) | 0.80 (0.75-0.85) | 0.77 (0.69-0.85) | .74 | ||
| EQ-5D visual analogue scale (n=135), mean (95% CI) | 66.79 (62.74-70.84) | 70.54 (64.59-76.48) | .30 | ||
aLSNS-6: Lubben Social Network Scale-6.
bUCLA-3: University of California, Los Angeles 3-item loneliness scale.