Efficacy of community groups as a social prescription for senior health-insights from a natural experiment during the COVID-19 lockdown.

ABSTRACT: Loneliness and associated physical and cognitive health decline among the aging population is an important medical concern, exacerbated in times of abnormal isolation like the 2020-2021 Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. In this backdrop, recent "social prescribing" based health policy initiatives such as community groups as a support structure for the aging population assumes great importance. In this paper, we evaluate and quantify the impact of such social prescribing policies in combatting loneliness and related health degeneration of the aging population in times of abnormal isolation. To this end, we conduct a natural experiment across a sample of 618 individuals aged 65 and over with varying access to community groups during the Covid-19 lockdown period. Using a random-effects, probit mode

SUBMITTER: Chopra RC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11490635 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature