Social Prescribing Schemes in Primary Care in Spain (EvalRA Project): a mixed-method study protocol to build an evaluation model

BACKGROUND

Social Prescribing is a Primary Health Care service that provides people with non-clinical care alternatives that may have an impact on their health. Social Prescribing can be more or less formal and structured. Social Prescribing Schemes are formal Social Prescribing of health assets by Primary Health Care teams in coordination and follow-up of patients with providers. The emerging evidence suggests that this service can improve people's health and well-being, create value and provide sustainability for the healthcare system. However, some evaluations note that the current evidence regarding social prescribing is insufficient and needs further investigation. The EvaLRA project aims to elaborate an evaluation model of Social Prescribing Schemes in Primary Health Care based on a set of structure, process, and outcomes indicators.

METHODS

In the region of Aragon, the Community Health Care Strategy aims to promote the development of social prescription schemes in Primary Health Care teams. This study is divided into two stages. Stage 1: identification of primary health care teams that implement social prescribing schemes and establish a first set of indicators to evaluate social prescribing using qualitative consensus techniques with experts. Stage 2 evaluation of the relevance, feasibility and sensitivity of selected indicators after 6 and 12 months in primary health care teams. The results will provide a set of indicators considering structure, process and outcomes for social prescribing schemes.

DISCUSSION

Current evaluations of the application of social prescribing schemes use different criteria and indicators. A set of agreed indicators and its piloting in primary health care teams will provide a tool to evaluate the implementation of social prescription schemes. In addition, the scorecard created could be of interest to other health systems in order to assess the service and improve its information system, deployment and safety.

Evaluating the implementation of community engagement guidelines (EVALUA GPS project): a study protocol

INTRODUCTION

The EVALUA GPS project aims to evaluate the impact of the implementation of the National Institute for Health Care and Excellence (NICE) guideline 'Community engagement: improving health and well-being and reducing health inequalities' adapted to the Spanish context.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

Phase I: A tool will be designed to evaluate the impact of implementing the recommendations of the adapted NICE guideline. The tool will be developed through a review of the literature on implementation of public health guidelines between 2000 and 2021 and an expert's panel consensus.

PHASE II

The developed tool will be implemented in 16 community-based programmes, acting as intervention sites, and 4 controls through a quasi-experimental pre-post study. Phase III: A final online web tool, based on all previously collected information, will be developed to support the implementation of the adapted NICE guidelines recommendations in other contexts and programmes.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Data will be collected through surveys and semistructured interviews. Quantitative and qualitative data will be analysed to identify implementation scenarios, changes in community engagement approaches, and barriers and facilitators to the implementation of the recommendations. All this information will be further synthesised to develop the online tool.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

The proposed research has been approved by the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of Aragon. Results will be presented at national and international conferences and published in peer-reviewed open access journals. The interactive online tool (phase III) will include examples of its application from the fieldwork.

[Implementation of a social prescribing protocol in Aragon's primary care teams]

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the implementation of social prescribing guideline in primary care Aragón.

DESIGN

Observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study.

LOCATION

One hundred twenty-three primary care teams of Aragón.

PARTICIPANTS

Social prescribing made with the protocol «Recomendación Activos - AP» of electronic health record of primary care Aragón from September 2018 to March 2021.

MAIN MEASUREMENTS

The most relevant variables of the protocol were described: age, sex, province, health sector, basic health area, health problem, aspect to be enhanced, asset for health recommended, type of professional, degree of assistance, satisfaction and improvement.

RESULTS

The protocol was used 2109 times, 1482 recommendations were made and 428 follow-ups were performed. The use of the protocol increased progressively until March 2020. A total of 1431 people received one recommendation and 51 received more than one recommendation. The average age of the beneficiaries was 67.9years. 74.8% of recommendations were addressed to women. Diagnoses related to social and psychological problems were the most frequently recommended, and the physical sphere was the aspect most promoted. Most social prescribing was linked to physical activity and resources for the promotion of personal autonomy. More than 90% of the people regularly attended the activity, the average satisfaction was 4.8 (0/5) and the degree of improvement 4.3 (0/5).

CONCLUSIONS

The implementation of asset for health recommended within the Aragon community care strategy is working, however, some aspects need to be reviewed. It is necessary to continue generating evidence to be able to adapt and make this process more efficient.

An integrative review of the implementation of public health guidelines

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The evidence on public health guidelines implementation is scarce.

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Most implementation of public health guidelines centres on individuals’ behaviour.

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Most evaluations of public health guidelines focus on barriers to implementation.

Health guidelines are important tools to ensure that health practices are evidence-based. However, research on how these guidelines are implemented is scarce. This integrative review aimed to: identify the literature on evaluation of public health guidelines implementation to explore (a) the topics which public health guidelines being implemented and evaluated in their implementation process are targeting; (b) how public health guidelines are being translated into action and the potential barriers and facilitators to their implementation; and (c) which methods are being used to evaluate their implementation. A total of 2001 articles published since 2000 and related to both clinical and public health guidelines implementation was identified through searching four databases (PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus). After screening titles and abstracts, only 10 papers related to public health guidelines implementation, and after accessing full-text, 8 were included in the narrative synthesis. Data were extracted on: topic and context, implementation process, barriers and facilitators, and evaluation methods used, and were then synthesised in a narrative form using a thematic synthesis approach. Most of these studies focussed on individual behaviours and targeted specific settings. The evaluation of implementation processes included qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods. The few articles retrieved suggest that evidence is still limited and highly context specific, and further research on translating public health guidelines into practice is needed.