Assessing the impact of social prescribing on wellbeing outcomes: A national analysis of UK data

Feifei Bu · Daniel Hayes · Luke Aaron Munford · Daisy E. Fancourt

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Art Therapy and Mental Health Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction Evaluation and Performance Assessment

Abstract

Abstract Social prescribing (SP) is growing rapidly in the United Kingdom and across the world. However, there remains a current lack of robust quantitative evidence on its impacts. Drawing pre-post data from large-scale longitudinal administrative records, this study aimed to provide the first large-scale national analysis of the wellbeing impacts of SP in the UK. Wellbeing outcomes were measured using the short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS) and the Office for National Statistics wellbeing scale (ONS4), including happiness, anxiety, life satisfaction and worthwhile. Data were analysed using Bayesian growth curve modelling. Our findings demonstrate consistent and sizeable improvements across different wellbeing domains in the 1-6 months following initial referral to SP. Specifically, we observed a 3.31-point increase in SWEMWBS (95% HDI: 3.26-3.37), a 1.59-point increase in happiness (95% HDI: 1.55-1.63), a 1.57-point increase in life satisfaction (95% HDI: 1.54-1.61), a 1.4-point increase in life being worthwhile (95% HDI: 1.36-1.43), and a 1.45-point decrease in anxiety (95% HDI: -1.49 to -1.41). The increase in life satisfaction is equivalent to a conservative monetary estimate of £4,252 over a mean period of 2.5 months (2019 prices), representing a return on investment of £9 (per £1 invested). These results proved robust across multiple sensitivity analyses. We found little evidence that the wellbeing changes differ across socio-demographic groups, indicating a broad applicability of SP interventions.

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References

2016Evaluating and establishing national norms for mental wellbeing using the short Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS): findings from the Health Survey for England 2022Global developments in social prescribing 2023Establishing internationally accepted conceptual and operational definitions of social prescribing through expert consensus: a Delphi study 2009Cognitive impairment and preferences for current health 2022Social Prescribing: Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of Psychosocial Community Referral Interventions in Primary Care 2020Impact of social prescribing to address loneliness: A mixed methods evaluation of a national social prescribing programme 2018‘Artlift’ arts-on-referral intervention in UK primary care: updated findings from an ongoing observational study 2015Improving wellbeing and self-efficacy by social prescription

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2026Using electronic health records to evaluate a children and young people’s social prescribing service: challenges and implications for research and practice

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