Social Impact Bonds as a Tool for Healthcare Response to Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases

Abstract

Background: In the situation of economic instability, when the problem of financing welfare and other social and healthcare services is aggravated, the importance of raising funds and attracting business investors becomes particularly urgent. Results of recent studies show that a synergistic effect can be achieved by introducing a social impact bond model in collaboration of external investors and health authorities. Projects aimed at improving children’s health in order to prevent subsequent costs in healthcare have been increasingly developed and proposed recently. Objective: To substantiate and develop a social impact bond aimed at preventing chronic noncommunicable diseases in children based on past experience. Materials and methods: We reviewed the content of regulations on the development and implementation of social impact bonds in the Russian Federation and examined the system of providing preventive health services for the child population, including overweight and obese children. Results: We have found that a regulatory framework for testing social impact bonds (SIB) has been already established in the Russian Federation and ten SIBs were implemented in seven constituent entities of the country in 2022. Due to a high prevalence of overweight and obesity among children in the Sverdlovsk Region and limited opportunities of implementing comprehensive, long-term preventive programs, a SIB for prevention of obesity in children aged 6 to 9 years living in the Sverdlovsk Region has been developed. The regulatory framework for the implementation of the project has been formed, the project passport approved, the targets of the social outcome set, the project implementation mechanism developed, and the participants identified. Conclusion: The ultimate goal of social impact bonds is not so much the solution of a specific local task, but elaboration of new techniques and mechanisms for their implementation through testing, enabling replication of successful models at the municipal and regional levels, and obtaining an overall cumulative effect from sustainable positive changes.