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Ageing Better: Supporting meaningful connections through social prescribing- methods note

Ageing Better: Supporting meaningful connections through social prescribing- methods note (PDF, 2.3 MB)

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Introduction

This note explains how the Ageing Better evaluation team gathered and analysed evidence on social prescribing projects for people aged 50 and over. It supports the main evaluation report by outlining the research approach.

It’s intended for researchers, funders and practitioners wanting to understand how the evidence was produced.

It covers:

  • interviews

  • focus groups

  • participant survey data

  • how analysis was carried out

It also explains data limitations and ethical considerations.

Findings

Because this is a methods note, it does not present evaluation findings.

Instead, it explains how the team reviewed evidence on social prescribing projects for people aged 50 and over, focusing on social connections, wellbeing and participation in community activities.

It describes how:

  • evidence from different Ageing Better areas was compared

  • participant outcomes data was aggregated

  • researchers assessed changes in measures such as loneliness, confidence and wellbeing

It also outlines methodological limitations, including variations in project design, differences in data completeness, and challenges associated with comparing social prescribing approaches delivered in different areas.