Social prescribing: less rhetoric and more reality. A systematic review of the evidence
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
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Link workers, activities and target groups in social prescribing: a literature review
Denis Rothe,Raffael Heiss +1 more
TL;DR: This study analyzes the linking processes, activities and target groups in extant social prescribing programs and concludes that the majority of studies emphasized the importance of linking group activities with personal preferences and identity needs.
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Models of social prescribing to address non-medical needs in adults: a scoping review
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Prescribing pills or people: the perplexity of social prescriptions
TL;DR: It is important for medical students to understand exactly what social prescribing is and how it can potentially benefit their future patients.
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TL;DR: Considering the aging population and the associated increase in the prevalence of ANCD, access to group singing in particular could be facilitated for these patients from a social prescription perspective with further research evidence.
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TL;DR: How quality improvement (QI) methodology was applied to partnership work in a population health promotion unit within a health care system and the three main lessons were to frame the need for improvement effectively and start by setting the conditions for others to lead.
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