During the spread of infectious diseases, social isolation increases among the elderly with cognitive impairment. The telephone may be a traditional but realistic and reliable tool to prevent social isolation. We report here a pilot study to examine the effects of regular telephone communication on elderly people with cognitive decline living in urban areas.

Seventeen elderly people (including four males) who attended a session for recruiting participants for a class using the board game “Go” in Tokyo were paired and talked on the phone once a week about Go issues and other interests during the 3-month class period, starting January 2022. At the end of the class in April 2022, a self-administered questionnaire (5 items, 4-point scale) and semi-structured interview were conducted. The Ethics Committee of the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology approved the study, and the participants’ written consent was obtained.

The participants’ mean age was 80.1 ± 5.5 years, and the mean score of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, which screens for mild cognitive impairment, was 21.3 ± 3.1, with 16 subjects (94.1%) scoring below the cut-off value of 25. The percentages of “agree” or “somewhat agree” responses indicated that the telephone interaction was “enjoyable” (94.1%), “had a positive effect” (88.2%), and they “would like to talk on the phone sometimes in the future” (76.5%). In the interviews, the positive responses were “(Because I was looking forward to the phone call so eagerly) I couldn't wait for the phone call,” “I enjoyed playing Go,” “It was easy to talk about Go because it was a common topic,” “We talked about things other than Go,” and “I want to go out with my pair partner,” while others were “I was careful about what talk about” and “It was difficult to maintain psychological distance from my pair partner.”

The results suggest that telephone communication may be effective for preventing social isolation among the elderly with cognitive impairment. We believe that promoting telephone interaction during normal times between residents in the community with common interests will build supportive relationships and lead to a Dementia-friendly society.