Connolly Hayley, Delimata Natalie, Galway Karen, Kiely Bridget, Lawler Margaret, Mulholland Jill, O'Grady Megan, Connolly Deirdre
Discipline of Occupational Therapy, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, F91 YW50 Sligo, Ireland.
Department of Social Sciences, Atlantic Technological University, F91 YW50 Sligo, Ireland.
Healthcare (Basel). 2024 Jan 16;12(2):219. doi: 10.3390/healthcare12020219.
National health services in Ireland and the UK fund the majority of social prescribing services and have issued recommendations for evaluation. However, it is not known what outcomes are prioritised for evaluation within individual services and what evaluation methods are used to capture recommended outcomes. A survey was carried out to examine evaluation practices of social prescribing services on the island of Ireland. This study used a cross-sectional observational design. The sample was all the staff involved in delivering and/or managing SP services on the island of Ireland. Questionnaires were distributed at a national SP conference and online. Closed-response questions were analysed using descriptive statistics. Content analysis was used for open-ended questions. Eighty-four usable surveys were returned (50% from the Republic of Ireland and 50% from Northern Ireland). All respondents (100%) agreed on the importance of measuring SP outcomes. The most frequently measured outcomes were health and well-being (89.2%) and loneliness (84%). The least frequently measured outcome was the satisfaction of healthcare professionals referring to SP: 78.4% of respondents never measured this outcome. The most frequently used measurement tool was the Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale, with 38/76 (50%) respondents using this measure. There was a lack of standardised measures identified for some outcomes. For example, 70% of respondents reported always measuring physical activity (PA), but only four respondents identified a specific PA measure. In open-ended questions, respondents recommended flexibility in evaluation methods to reflect the complexity and individualised focus of SP. They also identified the need for protected time to complete evaluations and recommended a national strategy to inform priorities in evaluations. This study demonstrates a wide variation on the island of Ireland on how SP services are measuring outcomes, with many outcomes rarely or never measured using standardised measures. Agreement is needed on a core outcome set for social prescribing in order to guide service delivery and evaluations.
爱尔兰和英国的国家医疗服务体系为大部分社会处方服务提供资金，并发布了评估建议。然而，尚不清楚在各个服务中，哪些结果被优先用于评估，以及使用何种评估方法来获取推荐的结果。开展了一项调查，以研究爱尔兰岛社会处方服务的评估实践。本研究采用横断面观察设计。样本为爱尔兰岛所有参与提供和/或管理社会处方服务的工作人员。问卷在全国社会处方会议上以及通过网络进行分发。使用描述性统计分析封闭式问题。对开放式问题采用内容分析。共返回84份可用问卷（爱尔兰共和国和北爱尔兰各占50%）。所有受访者（100%）都认同衡量社会处方结果的重要性。最常衡量的结果是健康与幸福感（89.2%）和孤独感（84%）。最不常衡量的结果是转介至社会处方服务的医疗专业人员的满意度：78.4%的受访者从未衡量过这一结果。最常用的测量工具是《沃里克-爱丁堡心理健康量表简表》，38/76（50%）的受访者使用该量表。对于某些结果，缺乏标准化的测量方法。例如，70%的受访者报告总是衡量身体活动，但只有四名受访者确定了具体的身体活动测量方法。在开放式问题中，受访者建议评估方法要有灵活性，以反映社会处方的复杂性和个性化特点。他们还指出需要有专门时间来完成评估，并建议制定一项国家战略，为评估重点提供指导。本研究表明，爱尔兰岛在社会处方服务如何衡量结果方面存在很大差异，许多结果很少或从未使用标准化方法进行衡量。需要就社会处方的核心结果集达成共识，以指导服务提供和评估。
