Impact of social prescribing intervention on people with type 2 diabetes mellitus in a primary healthcare context: a systematic literature review of effectiveness

Abstract

Abstract Aim To identify social prescribing intervention for people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in the context of primary healthcare and evaluate their impact on improving health, behavior, and economic outcomes. Subject and Methods Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, a literature search was conducted in SCOPUS database (MEDLINE) and via EBSCO Host (CINHAL, MEDLINE, and Psychology, and Behavioral Sciences Collection). Review studies were included and excluded on the basis of defined criteria. A comprehensive quality appraisal was conducted by analyzing the risk of bias according to each study design. Narrative synthesis was performed by analyzing the social prescribing intervention, with the outcomes sorted into categories. Results Eleven papers were selected with 19,202 participants describing nine social prescribing intervention domains with a positive contribution to health-related outcomes (improvement in quality of life, psychological and mental well-being, physical activity, and modestly reduced HbA1c), less evidence for health-related behavior outcomes (self-care management slow growth) and less evidence for health-related economic evaluation (small decline in care costs and primary care visits). Social prescribing intervention delivery in a face-to-face mode, performed for longer periods and involving fewer professionals in the referral and accompaniment of the person, demonstrated greater effectiveness. Quality methodology evaluation revealed concerns about the low quality of some studies and a high risk of bias. Conclusion The analyzed studies suggest that social prescribing interventions can play an important role in producing related health, behavioral, and economic outcomes for people with T2DM. However, interventions targeted specifically at people with T2DM are needed to increase their robustness.