Social Isolation in Older AdultsVSCNCT06946186

Virtual Senior Center

A study testing Virtual Senior Center - GrandPad and Virtual Senior Center - No GrandPad in people with Social Isolation in Older Adults and Quality of Life (QOL), run by Washington University School of Medicine at 1 site in United States.

Enrolling by invitation

Enrolling by invitation. The study team selects and invites participants, usually from an existing group of patients.

Sites and contacts

Official record

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Trial summary

In a 3-group trial with randomization and follow-up for 12 months, we will compare use of the VSC as well as health and quality of life outcomes among 650 older adults in St. Louis who receive either: (1) home delivered meals AND a GrandPad; (2) home-delivered meals but no GrandPad for 6 months; and (3) in person… Read more about this study

Who is it for?: Ages 65 years and olderHealthy volunteers can take part
Conditions the study is for: Social Isolation in Older Adults, Quality of Life (QOL), Activities of Daily Living
What is being tested?: Virtual Senior Center - GrandPad and Virtual Senior Center - No GrandPad
Type of treatment: Pill or oral medicine, Lifestyle or therapy programme
Could I receive a placebo?: No, everyone receives an active treatment
How many people: 650 participants
Where: 1 siteUnited States
Study dates: 23 Apr 2025to Jan 2028
Phase: Interventional

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

Ages 65 years and older
All sexes
Healthy volunteers accepted
Older adult

Who may be able to join

Current Home-delivered meal client with Aging Ahead

Who cannot join

Under age 65

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.

United States1 site

Washington University
St Louis, Missouri, 63101

Other trials in United States

About this study

Official title: Achieving Digital Equity for Health Improvement in a Virtual Senior Center

Read the detailed description

The aims of the study are:

Recruit 650 older adults in St. Louis into the study - 400 home-delivered meal recipients and 250 receiving in-person meals at senior centers. Describe baseline differences between the two groups in use of senior center programming, technology access and use, and health and quality of life outcomes.
Randomly assign the 400 home-delivered meal recipients to get a GrandPad immediately (GP) or 6 months later (GP-6). Compare the GP and GP-6 groups to in-person meal recipients (IP) on: (A) VSC engagement at 6- and 12-month follow-up; and (B) health and quality of life outcomes at 6- and 12-month follow-up.
Examine longitudinal changes and hypothesized mediating pathways using 5 waves of data from baseline, 3-,6-,9- and 12-month follow-up. Specifically: (A) in the GP-6 group only, compare VSC engagement, health and quality of life outcomes at 6-month follow-up (a period in which they did not have a GrandPad) to 12-month follow-up (a period in which they did have a GrandPad); (B) examine 12-month trends in GrandPad and VSC engagement, health and quality of life outcomes within and across groups; and (C) test mediation of hypothesized explanatory variables from the study's conceptual framework to examine potential causal pathways for health and quality of life outcomes.

Conditions: Social Isolation in Older Adults, Quality of Life (QOL), Activities of Daily Living
Being tested: Virtual Senior Center - GrandPad, Virtual Senior Center - No GrandPad
Keywords: digital access for older adults

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

Virtual Senior Center - GrandPadBehavioural
The Virtual Senior Center engages older adults in programs and services online with the help of a GrandPad.
Virtual Senior Center - No GrandPadBehavioural
Participants will be given information to access the website when they are able from their own phone, tablet, or computer.

Study groups in NCT06946186
Study group	Role	What they receive
GrandPad1	Experimental	This group will receive a GrandPad right away after they complete the baseline survey Receives: Behavioral: Virtual Senior Center - GrandPad
GrandPad2 - 6mo	Other	Delayed interventional. This group will receive a GrandPad after 6 months. Receives: Behavioral: Virtual Senior Center - GrandPad
Congregate	Active comparator	This group will not receive a GrandPad but will get access to the Virtual Senior Center Receives: Behavioral: Virtual Senior Center - No GrandPad

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

The Social Isolation Scale in Older Adults (Nicholson et al., 2020; The Gerontologist)
This 6-item questionnaire measures the extent to which an individual feels socially unconnected, using 2 related constructs (3 items per construct): quantity of social contacts and sense of relationship. The response options for social contacts ranges from 1 (none) to 5 (6 or more) and the sense of relationship ranges from 1(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The possible summed scores range from 6 to 30, with higher scores indicating less social isolation.
Measured: 12 month

Secondary outcomes (1)

Digital Social Participation (Anderberg et al., 2021; JMIR)
This 6-item questionnaire measures extent to which someone feels that digital technology is beneficial in their life. Response options range from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), so total summed scores range from 6 -30. A higher scores indicates more positive perceptions of digital technology.
Measured: 12 month

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

23 Apr 2025Jan 2028

First posted27 Apr 2025
Study start23 Apr 2025
Primary completionDec 2027 (estimated)
Study completionJan 2028 (estimated)

Resources

Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
Other trials for Social Isolation in Older AdultsStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
More trials run by Washington University School of MedicineThe sponsor's other registered studies.
What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design

Study type: Interventional
Phase: Phase N/A
Primary purpose: Other
Allocation: Randomised
Intervention model: Single group
Model description: Participants in 2 of the groups will be randomly assigned to receive the intervention immediately or in 6 month. The 3rd groups is naturally occurring comparison.
Masking: None (open label)
Enrolment: 650 participants (estimated)

IDs, dates and publications

ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT06946186
Sponsor's protocol ID: 202408007
Other IDs: OT2HL158287
Acronym: VSC
Status last verified: Jul 2026
First submitted: 13 Apr 2025
Last updated: 17 Jul 2026
Results posted: No
Data monitoring committee: No
FDA-regulated drug: No
FDA-regulated device: No
Individual data sharing: Yes: The raw survey response data including dates collected, as well as participant ID codes generated for this study will be shared in order to link the five waves of survey data as well as documentation of participation. All respondent identifiers (e.g., names, addresses) will be removed before sharing. Final de-identified intervention data and Common Survey 4 data will be shared with the CEAL (community engagement Alliance) Technical Assistance Team. Other CEAL researchers will be allowed to request common survey data. We will share all publicly accessible files on WashU Research Data, an institutional repository managed by the Washington University in St. Louis Libraries that uses a cloud-based hosted repository service called TIND as its platform. TIND is based on the open-source Invenio software developed at the research institute CERN to manage its own scholarly output. TIND uses an OAIS-compliant approach to preservation, with redundancy backup, conversion to archival file format

Interested in taking part?

The sponsor has not listed a contact. The official record may have more details.

Talk to your doctor first and take this page with you. Only the study team can confirm whether you can join.

Questions to ask the study team

What is the study trying to find out?
What would I need to do, and how often would I visit?
Could I receive a placebo instead of the treatment?
What are the possible risks and benefits for me?
Will it cost me anything? Are travel or time paid for?
Can I keep seeing my own doctor during the study?
What happens when the study ends?

See sites and contacts

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