A controlled evaluation of the effect of social prescribing programs on loneliness for adults in Queensland, Australia (protocol)

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Dingle, GA, Sharman, LS, Hayes, S, Chua, D, Baker, JR, Haslam, C, Jetten, J, Haslam, SA, Cruwys, T and McNamara, N ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3123-3678, 2022. A controlled evaluation of the effect of social prescribing programs on loneliness for adults in Queensland, Australia (protocol). BMC Public Health, 22 (1): 1384. ISSN 1471-2458

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13743-3

Abstract

Background: In social prescribing, link workers support individuals whose persistent health problems are exacerbated by loneliness by connecting them to community-based social activities. This approach is well established in the UK and is gaining attention in Australia. However, a major limitation of research to date has been a lack of theoretically informed and rigorous evaluations of social prescribing. We will address these points in this study, applying a social identity framework to examine the effects of group-based social prescribing (SP) activity compared to primary care treatment as usual (TAU).

Methods: Ninety participants experiencing loneliness recruited from primary care services and community centres across five sites in Southeast Queensland will be assigned to one of two conditions (SP, TAU) and assessed at two timepoints (baseline, + 8 weeks). Individuals will be aged 18 years and over, have sufficient English language skills to provide consent, and at the time of recruitment they will not be experiencing acute symptoms or social issues that require urgent intervention. Primary outcomes are loneliness, mental well-being, and health service use (total number of GP, hospital, and allied health visits in the past 3 months). Secondary outcomes will assess social group processes, including number of important social groups, new group identification, multiple identity compatibility, and group-based support and emotion regulation.

Discussion: This study will provide comprehensive data about the extent to which, and how, social prescribing to community-based group activities may help people to feel less lonely, more socially integrated, and healthy over the first 8 weeks. If effective, this social identity-informed model of social prescribing can be disseminated in communities across Australia.

Trial registration: ANZCTR, Registered 8 June 2022-Retrospectively registered, https:// www. anzctr. org. au/ ACTRN 12622 00080 1718. aspx

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	BMC Public Health
Creators:	Dingle, G.A., Sharman, L.S., Hayes, S., Chua, D., Baker, J.R., Haslam, C., Jetten, J., Haslam, S.A., Cruwys, T. and McNamara, N.
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date:	July 2022
Volume:	22
Number:	1
ISSN:	1471-2458
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1186/s12889-022-13743-3 DOI 1594764 Other
Rights:	©The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Laura Ward
Date Added:	05 Sep 2022 12:57
Last Modified:	05 Sep 2022 12:57
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/46958