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The impact of the Luton social prescribing programme on mental well-being: a quantitative before-and-after study

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Open access

Abstract

Background Social prescribing programmes expand the range of options available to primary care health professionals to address patients’ psychosocial needs, impacting on their health and well-being. The objective of this study was to assess the change in the mental well-being of service users after participation in the Luton social prescribing programme. Methods Skew-normal (SN) regression was applied to analyse the change in mental well-being post-intervention (N = 63). The short Warwick–Edinburgh mental well-being scale was used as the outcome measure. Results The SN regression found a statistically significant change (P < 0.0001) in the average difference score between baseline and post-intervention measures. However, the observed change does not appear to be of clinical relevance. No significant associations in mental well-being scores by gender, age or working status were found. Conclusion Findings of this study indicate that social prescribing may have the potential to improve the mental well-being of service users. The study findings contribute to the sparse evidence base on social prescribing outcomes by socio-demographic characteristics of participants and highlight the importance of considering subgroup analysis in future research.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages e69-e76

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Journal of Public Health (Volume 43, Issue 1)

Publication milestones

  • Accepted/In press - 15/10/2019
  • Published - 27/12/2019

Publication status

Published - 27/12/2019

ISSN

1741-3842

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/625074
  • Scopus: 85104276055

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