Evidence and methods required to evaluate the impact for patients who use social prescribing: a rapid systematic review and qualitative interviews

Social prescribing encourages health-care and other professionals to refer patients to a link worker, who will develop a personalised plan to improve the patient’s health and well-being. We explore the feasibility of evaluating the service. The objective was to answer the following research questions. (1) What are the most important evaluation questions that an impact study could investigate? (2) What data are already available at a local or national level and what else would be needed? (3) Are there sites delivering at a large enough scale and in a position to take part in an impact study? (4) How could the known challenges to evaluation (e.g. information governance and identifying a control group) be addressed? Data sources included MEDLINE ALL (via Ovid), searched from inception to 14 February 2019, and the first 100 hits of a Google (Google Inc., Mountain View, CA, USA) search. Rapid systematic review – electronic searches up to February 2019. Studies included any study design or outcomes. Screening was conducted by one reviewer; eligibility assessment and data extraction were undertaken by two reviewers. Data were synthesised narratively. Qualitative interviews – data from 25 participants in different regions of England were analysed using a pragmatic framework approach across 12 areas including prior data collection, delivery sites, scale and processes of current service delivery, and known challenges to evaluation. Views of key stakeholders (i.e. patients and academics) were captured. Rapid systematic review – 27 out of 124 studies were included. We identified outcomes and highlighted research challenges. Important evaluation questions included identification of the most appropriate (1) outcomes and (2) methods for dealing with heterogeneity. Qualitative interviews – social prescribing programmes are holistic in nature, covering domains such as social isolation and finance. Service provision is heterogeneous. The follow-on services that patients access are often underfunded or short term. Available data – there was significant heterogeneity in data availability, format and follow-up. Data were collected using a range of tools in ad hoc databases across sites. Non-attendance data were frequently not captured. Service users are more deprived and vulnerable than the overall practice population. Feasibility and potential limitations of an evaluation – current data collection is limited in determining the effectiveness of the link worker social prescribing model; therefore, uniform data collection across sites is needed. Standardised outcomes and process measures are required. Cost–utility analysis could provide comparative values for assessment alongside other NHS interventions. This was a rapid systematic review that did not include a systematic quality assessment of studies. COVID-19 had an impact on the shape of the service. We were not able to examine the potential causal mechanisms in any detail. We describe possible future research approaches to determine effectiveness and cost-effectiveness evaluations; all are limited in their application. (1) Evaluation using currently available, routinely collected health-care, costing and outcomes data. (2) Evaluative mixed-methods research to capture the complexity of social prescribing through understanding heterogeneous service delivery across comparative settings. Cost-effectiveness evaluation using routinely available costing and outcomes data to supplement qualitative data. (3) Interventional evaluative research, such as a cluster randomised controlled trial focused on the link worker model. Cost-effectiveness data collected as part of the trial. Mature data are currently not available. There needs to be an agreement across schemes on the key outcomes that need to be measured, harmonisation of data collection, and follow-up referrals (how and when). This project was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health and Social Care Delivery Research programme and will be published in full in Health and Social Care Delivery Research; Vol. 10, No. 29. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.