Frontiers in Psychology (Apr 2024)

A controlled evaluation of social prescribing on loneliness for adults in Queensland: 8-week outcomes

  • Genevieve A. Dingle,
  • Leah S. Sharman,
  • Shaun Hayes,
  • Catherine Haslam,
  • Tegan Cruwys,
  • Jolanda Jetten,
  • S. Alexander Haslam,
  • Niamh McNamara,
  • David Chua,
  • David Chua,
  • James R. Baker,
  • James R. Baker,
  • Tracey Johnson

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1359855
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15

Abstract

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IntroductionThere have been few controlled evaluations of Social Prescribing (SP), in which link workers support lonely individuals to engage with community-based social activities. This study reports early outcomes of a trial comparing General Practitioner treatment-as-usual (TAU) with TAU combined with Social Prescribing (SP) in adults experiencing loneliness in Queensland.MethodsParticipants were 114 individuals who were non-randomly assigned to one of two conditions (SP, n = 63; TAU, n = 51) and assessed at baseline and 8 weeks, on primary outcomes (loneliness, well-being, health service use in past 2 months) and secondary outcomes (social anxiety, psychological distress, social trust).ResultsRetention was high (79.4%) in the SP condition. Time × condition interaction effects were found for loneliness and social trust, with improvement observed only in SP participants over the 8-week period. SP participants reported significant improvement on all other outcomes with small-to-moderate effect sizes (ULS-8 loneliness, wellbeing, psychological distress, social anxiety). However, interaction effects did not reach significance.DiscussionSocial prescribing effects were small to moderate at the 8-week follow up. Group-based activities are available in communities across Australia, however, further research using well-matched control samples and longer-term follow ups are required to provide robust evidence to support a wider roll out.

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