Table 2.
Summary of included studies
| Study (year) | Participants and setting | Study design | Outcomes |
| Welfare and advice services located in healthcare settings | |||
| Abbott and Hobby (2000)53 | Service users (n=68, 60% female) in five general practices in a deprived area of Liverpool, England. | Uncontrolled before-after study (6 and 12-month follow-up) |
SF-36 |
| Caiels and Thurston (2005)56 | Participants (n=96, 64% female, 98% White) in an advice service delivered at general practices in England. | Uncontrolled before-after study (follow-up at case closure) |
SF-12 |
| Abbott et al (2006)54 | Welfare benefits advice delivered to service users (n=345, 53% female, 96% White British) recruited from 59 GP surgeries in England. | Uncontrolled before-after study (6 and 12-month follow-up) |
SF-36 |
| Ryan et al (2012)55 | A medical–legal partnership for low-income earning patients (n=204, 72% female, 53% White) in a family clinic in Arizona, USA. | Uncontrolled before-after study (follow-up at case closure, mean: 2 months) |
PSS-10, MYCaW |
| Harris (2013)57 | Participants in an advice service delivered in a hospital in London (n=745, 66% female, 51% White). | Uncontrolled before-after study (follow-up at case closure) |
SF-36, health service costs |
| Krska et al (2013)52 | Patients (n=148, 65% female, 78% working age) at six general practices in deprived areas of England participating in an outreach service. | Uncontrolled before-after study (6-month follow-up) | Health service utilisation |
| Woodhead et al (2017)50 | Adults (n=910, 63% female, 49% White British) accessing colocated welfare advice in eight general practices in London. | Quasiexperimental controlled study (3-month follow-up) | GHQ-12, SWEMWBS, health service utilisation |
| Link worker social prescribing | |||
| Grant et al (2000)47 | Patients (n=161, 75% female) in 26 general practices in England identified by their general practitioners (GPs) as having psychosocial problems and referred to local and national voluntary organisations. | Randomised controlled trial (1 and 4-month follow-up) | HADS, Duke-UNC FSSQ, health service utilisation |
| Grayer et al (2008)51 | Link workers direct patients (n=108, 62% female, mean age: 43, 67% White) identified as having psychosocial problems in 13 general practices in London to community and voluntary services. | Uncontrolled before-after study (3-month follow-up) |
GHQ-12, CORE-OM, health service utilisation |
| Telephone debt advice services | |||
| Jinhee Kim et al (2013)58 | Clients (n=355, 68% female, 65% White) drawn from the database of a non-profit credit counselling agency in the USA. | Controlled before-after study (18-month follow-up) |
Composite health score, including experiences of stress |
| Pleasence and Balmer (2007)48 | People (n=402) experiencing problems with debt recruited from 16 unemployment and welfare centres in England and Wales. | Randomised controlled trial (5-month follow-up) | STAI-S, EQ-5D |
| Food insecurity interventions | |||
| Roncarolo et al (2016)61 | Food insecure individuals (n=824, 58% female, 36% foreign born) recruited from 24 non-profit organisations in Montreal, Canada. | Controlled before-after study (9-month follow-up) | SF-12 |
| Active labour market programmes | |||
| Vinokur et al (2000)49 | Recently unemployed people (55% female, median age: 35, 76% White, mean period of unemployment: 4.1 weeks) in Michigan, USA, participating in a week-long, group job search workshop. | Randomised controlled trial (2, 6 and 24-month follow-up) | HSCL, UM-CIDI, role and emotional functioning |
| Saloniemi et al (2014)60 | Recently unemployed people (n=342, 53% female, mean age: 36, 71% unemployed for <12 months) in Finland participating in government-run vocational training courses. | Uncontrolled before-after study. Follow-up at programme conclusion (range: 3–24 months) |
GHQ-12, SSS, self-reported sense of coherence |
| Rose (2019)59 | 9% random sample of all people aged 16–54 entering unemployment in Germany in 1 year. | Controlled before-after study (12-month follow-up) | Self-reported life satisfaction |
CORE-OM, Core Outcome Measurement tools; Duke-UNC FSSQ, Functional Social Support Questionnaire; EQ-5D, EuroQol-5 Dimension; GHQ-12, General Health Questionnaire; HADS, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale; HSCL, Hopkins Symptoms Checklist; MYCaW, Measure Yourself Concerns and Well-being; PSS-10, Perceived Stress Scale; rOR, Ratio of odds ratios; SF-12, 12-item Short Form Survey; SF-36, 36-item Short Form Survey; SSS, Stress Symptom Scale; STAI-S, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-state short form; SWEMWBS, Shortened Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale; UM-CIDI, Composite International Diagnostic Interview, University of Michigan short version.