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

• Published in: Journal of public health (Oxford, England) Vol. 43; no. 1; pp. e69 - e76
• Main Authors: Pescheny, Julia V, Gunn, Laura H, Pappas, Yannis, Randhawa, Gurch
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 12.04.2021
• Subjects: social determinants; primary care; mental health
• ISSN: 1741-3842; 1741-3850
• DOI: 10.1093/pubmed/fdz155

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. 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. 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. 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.