Social prescribing improves health and is cost effective

Abstract

McCartney questions use of the word “prescribing” in relation to parkrun,1 but social prescribing is not intended to be a way of “medicalising” schemes like parkrun. On the contrary, it is a way of connecting patients to non-medical support and activities that can benefit their health and wellbeing, by tackling social factors like loneliness, isolation, or problems with debt or housing. The most common form of social prescribing involves general …