Social prescribing: less rhetoric and more reality. A systematic review of the evidence
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
A systematic review of social prescribing programmes being widely promoted and adopted in the UK National Health Service found current evidence fails to provide sufficient detail to judge either success or value for money.Abstract:
Objectives Social prescribing is a way of linking patients in primary care with sources of support within the community to help improve their health and well-being. Social prescribing programmes are being widely promoted and adopted in the UK National Health Service and so we conducted a systematic review to assess the evidence for their effectiveness. Setting/data sources Nine databases were searched from 2000 to January 2016 for studies conducted in the UK. Relevant reports and guidelines, websites and reference lists of retrieved articles were scanned to identify additional studies. All the searches were restricted to English language only. Participants Systematic reviews and any published evaluation of programmes where patient referral was made from a primary care setting to a link worker or facilitator of social prescribing were eligible for inclusion. Risk of bias for included studies was undertaken independently by two reviewers and a narrative synthesis was performed. Primary and secondary outcome measures Primary outcomes of interest were any measures of health and well-being and/or usage of health services. Results We included a total of 15 evaluations of social prescribing programmes. Most were small scale and limited by poor design and reporting. All were rated as a having a high risk of bias. Common design issues included a lack of comparative controls, short follow-up durations, a lack of standardised and validated measuring tools, missing data and a failure to consider potential confounding factors. Despite clear methodological shortcomings, most evaluations presented positive conclusions. Conclusions Social prescribing is being widely advocated and implemented but current evidence fails to provide sufficient detail to judge either success or value for money. If social prescribing is to realise its potential, future evaluations must be comparative by design and consider when, by whom, for whom, how well and at what cost. Trial registration number PROSPERO Registration: CRD42015023501.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Valoración de un programa piloto de prescripción de actividad física en atención primaria en la Comunitat Valenciana
Andrea Martín-Doménech,Rosana Peiró-Pérez,Ana Esplugues,Susana Castán,Eva Legaz-Sánchez,Elena Pérez-Sanz +5 more
TL;DR: In this article, a pilot study showed short-term health benefits after the physical activity prescription, including an improvement in the quality of life, health perception and self-esteem of the population.
Posted ContentDOI
Exploring the enablers and barriers to social prescribing for people living with long-term neurological conditions: a focus group investigation.
TL;DR: The barriers and enablers to accessing social prescribing for people living with LTNCs (plwLTNCs) were explored to address the health inequalities of those living with long-term conditions.
Journal ArticleDOI
The National ReferAll Database: An Open Dataset of Exercise Referral Schemes Across the UK
TL;DR: The National ReferAll Database as mentioned in this paper was created by ukactive, a specialist in software solutions for exercise referral, and the National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine, which has its research hub at the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre, in Sheffield.
Reshaping health services and fuel poverty in the Outer Hebrides: Final report of the Gluasad Còmhla (Moving Together) project
TL;DR: Gluasad Comhla (Moving Together) as discussed by the authors is an innovative approach to identifying and assisting people whose health is compromised by living in a cold or hard-to-heat home.
A two-year evaluation of the Young People Social Prescribing (YPSP) pilot
TL;DR: The Institute for Connected Communities has developed considerable expertise in the evaluation of social prescribing interventions and training and are founding members of the international social prescribing network.
References
More filters
Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions, Version 5.1.0. The Cochrane Collaboration
Journal ArticleDOI
Developing and evaluating complex interventions: The new Medical Research Council guidance
TL;DR: The Medical Research Council's evaluation framework (2000) brought welcome clarity to the task and now the council has updated its guidance.
Journal ArticleDOI
SQUIRE 2.0 (Standards for QUality Improvement Reporting Excellence): revised publication guidelines from a detailed consensus process
Greg Ogrinc,Greg Ogrinc,Greg Ogrinc,Louise Davies,Louise Davies,Louise Davies,Daisy Goodman,Daisy Goodman,Paul B. Batalden,Paul B. Batalden,Frank Davidoff,David Stevens +11 more
TL;DR: The development of SQUIRE 2.0 is described, intended for reporting the range of methods used to improve healthcare, recognising that they can be complex and multidimensional.
Journal ArticleDOI
Effectiveness of physical activity promotion based in primary care: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials
TL;DR: Promotion of physical activity to sedentary adults recruited in primary care significantly increases physical activity levels at 12 months, as measured by self report, and there is insufficient evidence to recommend exercise referral schemes over advice or counselling interventions.
Related Papers (5)
Non-clinical community interventions: a systematised review of social prescribing schemes
Social prescribing in general practice: adding meaning to medicine
Janet Brandling,William House +1 more