The impact of social prescribing on well-being outcomes in a nationwide analysis

Abstract Social prescribing (SP) is growing rapidly in the UK and across the world. However, there remains a lack of robust quantitative evidence on its impacts. Here we aim to provide a large-scale national analysis of the well-being impacts of SP in the UK, drawing pre–post data from large-scale longitudinal administrative records. Well-being outcomes were measured using the short Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale and the Office for National Statistics well-being scale, including happiness, anxiety, life satisfaction and sense of life being worthwhile. Data were analysed using Bayesian growth curve modelling. Our findings demonstrate consistent and sizeable improvements across different well-being domains in the 1–6 months following initial referral to SP. Specifically, we observed a 3.31-point increase in the short Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (95% highest density interval (HDI) 3.26 to 3.37), a 1.59-point increase in happiness (95% HDI 1.55 to 1.63), a 1.57-point increase in life satisfaction (95% HDI 1.54 to 1.61), a 1.4-point increase in sense of life being worthwhile (95% HDI 1.36 to 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 well-being changes differ across sociodemographic groups, indicating a broad applicability of SP interventions.