Collaborative Stepped-Care and Productive Ageing Program for Older People With Depressive Symptoms

Depression will be measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), a 9-item instrument that incorporates depression diagnostic criteria with other leading major depressive symptoms, and rates the frequency of the symptoms that factor into the scoring severity index. PHQ-9 total score ranges from 0 to 27, higher scores indicate higher levels of depression. Change scores of depression will be calculated by subtract the baseline PHQ-9 score from the follow-up PHQ-9 score, and negative results indicates reduction in depression.

Anxiety will be measured by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7), a 7-item scale in which responses to each item are rated on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 0 to 3. The total score will be used, ranging from 0 to 21. Higher scores indicate higher levels of anxiety symptoms. Change scores of anxiety will be calculated by subtract the baseline GAD-7 score from the follow-up GAD-7 score, and negative results indicates reduction in anxiety.

Loneliness will be measured by the UCLA loneliness scale (UCLA-3), a 3-item self-report scale with each item evaluated with scores ranging from 0 (never) to 3 (often). The total score will be used, ranging from 0 to 9. Higher scores indicate greater loneliness. Change scores of loneliness will be calculated by subtract the baseline UCLA-3 score from the follow-up UCLA-3 score, and negative results indicates reduction in loneliness.

Self-harm risk will be assessed using eight items adapted from the Self-Harm Inventory, providing an overall assessment based on total score and clinical judgement. Social service staff assess participants' risk of self-harm (yes or no answers to 10 items) and harm to others (yes or no answers to 4 items). An overall evaluation of suicidal risk score ranges from 0 (No) to 3 (High). The overall evaluation score will be used. Change scores of self-harm risk will be calculated by subtract the baseline overall risk score from the follow-up risk score, and negative results indicates reduction in self-harm risk.

Client Service Receipt Inventory (CSRI) will be used to collect the current types and level of social services which comprise the care package of each participant, and a locally adapted short version would be developed for this purpose. Participants report frequency of usage of different services in the past month when filling the questionnaire, higher frequency indicates more usage of that particular service.

A semi-structured interview asking clients about their typical day activities in three domains: physical, social, and mental. A combination of being active in at least two domains would be used as one of the exit criteria. The changes of total numbers of activities reported will be calculated.

Cognition will be measured by the Hong Kong Montreal Cognitive Assessment 5-Minute Protocol (HK-MoCA 5-Min). It is a validated and reliable cognitive screen for stroke and transient ischemic attack, brief and highly feasible for telephone administration. It includes four items examining attention, verbal learning and memory, executive functions/language, and orientation extracted from the MoCA. Total scores range between 0 and 30, with higher scores indicating better cognition. Change scores of cognition will be calculated by subtract the baseline HK-MoCA 5-Min score from the follow-up score, and positive results indicates improvements in cognition.

Social support network is measured by a self-developed questionnaire asking participants to list out names of people who they would turn to (a) when they feel down, and (b) when they need help for trivial things. Participants can report up to 5 people to each condition. More people they can turn to indicates a wider social support network. Change in social support network will be calculated by subtract the baseline number of persons who they can turn to help from the follow-up number, positive results indicates increase in social support network.

Health-related quality of life will be measured by the EuroQoL 5 Dimensions 5 Levels (EQ-5D-5L). The EQ-5D-5L is a generic preference-based measure of health on five dimensions (5D): mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression, each with five levels (5L) of problems. The traditional Chinese version for Hong Kong developed by EuroQol Group will be used. Results will be presented by the EQ-5D-5L index value.

A visual analogue scale (EQ VAS) will be used for participants to rate their general health from 0 to 100. Change scores of overall self-rated health will be calculated by subtract the baseline EQ VAS from the follow-up EQ VAS score, and positive results indicates improvement in self-rated health.