Photo Credit: Frances Coch
The following is a summary of “Equal, equitable or exacerbating inequalities: patterns and predictors of social prescribing referrals in 160 128 UK patients,” published in the November 2024 issue of Psychiatry by Bu et al.
Social prescribing addresses social determinants of health, but its reach and effectiveness remain uncertain.
Researchers conducted a prospective study to examine social prescribing in the UK, including referral routes, reasons, and link worker contacts.
They analyzed data from over 160,000 UK individuals referred to social prescribing using descriptive statistics and regression models, including logistic regression for binary outcomes and negative binomial regression for count variables.
The results showed mental health was the top referral reason and intervention prescribed. Around 72%–85% of referrals came from medical routes, but non-medical routes reached deprived areas, younger adults, men, and ethnic minorities better. While 90% reached a link worker, only 38% received an intervention, with a lack of community activities, especially for mental health, evident. There was also a shortage of practical support and opportunities for building social relationships. The study revealed significant variations in how social prescribing is implemented across different UK nations.
They concluded that mental health was the primary reason for social prescribing referrals, but significant inequalities in access remained. They recommended prioritizing non-medical referral routes to address these disparities and emphasized the need for increased financial and infrastructural resources, strategic planning, and investment in data platforms and staff training to improve intervention rates and ensure effective distribution of social prescribing services.
