Table 1.
Summary Table of 51 articles that evaluate social prescribing programmes according to individual-level outcomes.
| Impact Concept | Concept Measure (Number of Studies Utilising the Measure) |
Evidence of Change # |
Means of Causal Inference ## |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loneliness (14) | UCLA (7) Delphi Method (1) Hawthorne Friendship Scale (1) Scale developed for a study purpose (1) Unspecified measure (4) |
4 [27,37,79,85] † 1 [80] |
Serial mediation analysis, Coeff = (−0.23), p = 0.003 [27] † Serial mediation analysis, Coeff = (−0.31), p = 0.0001 [79] † |
| Social Isolation (20) | Conf. with loneliness (3) Conf. with connectedness (1) Interview quotations (2) Thematic analysis (2) Hawthorne Friendship Scale (1) Duke-UNC (1) Adult Social Care/Public Outcome (1) Unspecified measure (9) |
2 [60,66] † 1 [76] |
Randomised controlled trial (RCT), non sig. mean between group diff., DUKE-UNC: confidant support (−0.9), p = 0.221) and affective support (−0.3), p = 0.594 [60] † |
| Well-being (42) | WEMWBS (14) ONS4 (2) UCL Museum well-being (2) Scale developed for a study purpose (8) Thematic analysis (4) The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale K10 and The World Health Organization Quality of Life (1) Medical outcome profile (MYMOP) (1) Investigating Choice Experiments for the Preferences of Older People Capability Measure for Adults (ICECAP-A) (1) Unspecified measure (9) |
15 [26,37,38,44,55,57,59,60,61,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,73,75,76,77,78,80,81,82,83,85] † 13 [26,55,64,65,67,68,69,73,75,76,78,80,83] |
Randomised controlled trial (RCT), sig. mean score between group diff. (−1.9), p = 0.002) [60] † Randomised controlled trial (RCT), mean between-group diff., the WEMWBS score at 3-month follow-up 4.6 (−1.7 to 10.8), and 1.9 (95% CI −4.6 to 8.4) at 6 months. [81] † Cluster-RCT, Coeff = (–0.011), p = 0.411 [57] † |
| Connectedness (14) | Thematic analysis (4) Scale developed for a study purpose (2) Adult Social Care/Public Outcome (1) Campaign to End Loneliness (1) Interview quotations (1) Revised UCLA loneliness scale (1) Unspecified measure (4) |
3 [27,79,82] † | Serial mediation analysis, community belonging (Coeff = 0.09, p = 0.01); social support (Coeff = 0.33, p < 0.001) [27] † Serial mediation analysis, Coeff = 0.09, p = 0.01 [79] † |
# Studies showing statistically significant change between pre- and post-measures for a target population/group of interest, with these measures clearly defined and connected to key outcomes. Detailed findings reported in Table S1. ## Studies implementing a research design or can claim a causal link between the social prescribing intervention and the changes they find due to research design (RCT), statistical matching, or other rigorous means of causal inference. † Studies published in peer-reviewed outlets.