The role of social isolation in frequent and/or avoidable hospitalisation: Rural community-based service providers' perspectives

This paper reports further analysis from a study investigating service providers' perspectives on factors influencing frequent hospital admission in older patients with chronic disease, and explores the perceived role of social isolation. Semi-structured interviews with 15 purposively sampled community-based service providers in rural New South Wales, Australia were thematically analysed. Social isolation is perceived to contribute to admission in ways that may be amenable to intervention. Further research is needed to understand patients' perspectives on the role of social isolation in admission, in order to inform policy and programs aimed at reducing hospitalisation among older people with chronic disease.