{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,19]],"date-time":"2026-04-19T07:41:15Z","timestamp":1776584475739,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,2]],"date-time":"2024-01-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1704153600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100009455","name":"West Virginia University","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["Foundation 2W1694"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Foundation 2W1694"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100009455","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS ONE"],"abstract":"\nIntroduction<\/jats:title>\nOlder adults living alone in rural areas frequently experience health declines, social isolation, and limited access to services. To address these challenges, our medical academic university supported a quality improvement project for developing and evaluating the Visiting Neighbors program in two rural Appalachian counties. Our Visiting Neighbors program trained local volunteers to visit and guide rural older adults in healthy activities. These age-appropriate activities (Mingle, Manage, and Move\u2013 3M\u2019s) were designed to improve the functional health of older adults. The program includes four in-home visits and four follow-up telephone calls across three months.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n\nPurpose<\/jats:title>\nThe purpose of this paper was to describe the 3M\u2019s Visiting Neighbors protocol steps guiding the quality improvement procedures relating to program development, implementation, and evaluation.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n\nMethods and materials<\/jats:title>\nThis Visiting Neighbors study used a single-group exploratory quality improvement design. This program was tested using quality improvement standards, including collecting participant questionnaires and visit observations.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n\nResults<\/jats:title>\nOlder adults (> 65 years) living alone (N = 30) participants were female (79%) with a mean age of 82.96 (SD = 7.87) years. Volunteer visitor participants (N = 10) were older adult females. Two volunteer visitors implemented each visit, guided by the 3M\u2019s activities manual. All visits were verified as being consistently delivered (fidelity). Enrollment and retention data found the program was feasible to conduct. The older adult participants\u2019 total program helpfulness ratings (1 to 5) were high (M = 51.27, SD = 3.77). All volunteer visitor\u2019s program helpfulness ratings were also high (M = 51.78, SD = 3.73).<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n\nDiscussion<\/jats:title>\nThe Visiting Neighbors program consistently engaged older Appalachian adults living alone in the 3M\u2019s activities. The feasibility and fidelity of the 3M\u2019s home visits were verified. The quality improvement processes included engaging the expert advisory committee and rural county stakeholders to ensure the quality of the program development, implementation, and evaluation.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0296438","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,2]],"date-time":"2024-01-02T20:05:22Z","timestamp":1704225922000},"page":"e0296438","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Developing, implementing, and evaluating the visiting Neighbors\u2019 program in rural Appalachia: A quality improvement protocol"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"19","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0310-3673","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Ubolrat","family":"Piamjariyakul","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Susan R.","family":"McKenrick","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Angel","family":"Smothers","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Angelo","family":"Giolzetti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Helen","family":"Melnick","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Molly","family":"Beaver","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4231-5847","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Saima","family":"Shafique","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kesheng","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kerri J.","family":"Carte","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Brad","family":"Grimes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Marc W.","family":"Haut","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"R. 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