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Protocol for the End-of-Life Social Action Study (ELSA): a randomised wait-list controlled trial and embedded qualitative case study evaluation assessing the causal impact of social action…

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Palliative Care, July 2016
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (84th percentile)
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (78th percentile)

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Citations

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132 Mendeley
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Title
Protocol for the End-of-Life Social Action Study (ELSA): a randomised wait-list controlled trial and embedded qualitative case study evaluation assessing the causal impact of social action befriending services on end of life experience
Published in
BMC Palliative Care, July 2016
DOI 10.1186/s12904-016-0134-3
Pubmed ID
Authors

Catherine Walshe, Guillermo Perez Algorta, Steven Dodd, Matthew Hill, Nick Ockenden, Sheila Payne, Nancy Preston

Abstract

Compassionate support at the end of life should not be the responsibility of health and social care professionals alone and requires a response from the wider community. Volunteers, as community members, are a critical part of many end-of-life care services. The impact of their services on important outcomes such as quality of life is currently poorly understood. The purpose of this study is to evaluate a series of social action initiatives which use volunteers to deliver befriending services to people anticipated to be in their last year of life. The aim is to determine if receiving care from a social action volunteer befriending service plus usual care significantly improves quality of life in the last year of life. The research questions will be addressed through a wait-list randomised controlled trial (WLRCT) and qualitative case study evaluation across 12 sites in England. Participants will be randomly allocated to either receive the social action volunteer befriending service straight away or receive the intervention after a four week wait (wait-list arm). The impact of the intervention on end-of-life experience (quality of life as primary outcome, loneliness, social support) will be measured. Repeated assessments will be carried out at baseline and weeks 4 and 8 for the intervention arm and weeks 4, 8 and 12 for the wait-list arm. For selected sites case study evaluation will include interviews, observation and documentary analysis to understand the mechanisms underpinning any found impact. This study will address the need to both provide services which use social action models to support end-of-life care in community settings, and to robustly evaluate these models to determine if they influence the experience of end-of-life care. Such services could work to reduce isolation, help meet emotional needs and maintain a sense of connectedness to the community. ISRCTN 12929812 Registered 20.5.15.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 15 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 132 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 1 <1%
Spain 1 <1%
Unknown 130 98%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 20 15%
Student > Master 15 11%
Researcher 13 10%
Student > Doctoral Student 10 8%
Student > Bachelor 10 8%
Other 13 10%
Unknown 51 39%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Nursing and Health Professions 21 16%
Medicine and Dentistry 19 14%
Psychology 15 11%
Social Sciences 13 10%
Engineering 2 2%
Other 7 5%
Unknown 55 42%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 11. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 26 July 2016.
All research outputs
#3,132,106
of 24,619,469 outputs
Outputs from BMC Palliative Care
#360
of 1,403 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#54,764
of 362,013 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Palliative Care
#7
of 28 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,619,469 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 87th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,403 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 9.3. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 74% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 362,013 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 84% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 28 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 78% of its contemporaries.