The social value of investing in public health across the life course: a systematic scoping review
Open Access
- 1 May 2020
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in BMC Public Health
- Vol. 20 (1), 1-18
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-08685-7
Abstract
Making the case for investing in public health by illustrating the social, economic and environmental value of public health interventions is imperative. Economic methodologies to help capture the social value of public health interventions such as Social Return on Investment (SROI) and Social Cost-Benefit Analysis (SCBA) have been developed over past decades. The life course approach in public health reinforces the importance of investment to ensure a good start in life to safeguarding a safe, healthy and active older age. This novel review maps an overview of the application of SROI and SCBA in the existing literature to identify the social value of public health interventions at individual stages of the life course. A systematic scoping review was conducted on peer-reviewed and grey literature to identify SROI and SCBA studies of public health interventions published between January 1996 and June 2019. All primary research articles published in the English language from high-income countries that presented SROI and SCBA outputs were included. Studies were mapped into stages of the life course, and data on the characteristics of the studies were extracted to help understand the application of social value methodology to assess the value of public health interventions. Overall 40 SROI studies were included in the final data extraction, of which 37 were published in the grey literature. No SCBA studies were identified in the search. Evidence was detected at each stage of the life course which included; the birth, neonatal period, postnatal period and infancy (n = 2); childhood and adolescence (n = 17); adulthood (main employment and reproductive years) (n = 8); and older adulthood (n = 6). In addition, 7 studies were identified as cross-cutting across the life course in their aims. This review contributes to the growing evidence base that demonstrates the use of social value methodologies within the field of public health. By mapping evidence across stages of the life course, this study can be used as a starting point by public health professionals and institutions to take forward current thinking about moving away from traditional economic measures, to capturing social value when investing in interventions across the life course.Keywords
This publication has 24 references indexed in Scilit:
- SROI as a Method for Evaluation Research: Understanding Merits and LimitationsVOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 2014
- The social return on investment in community befriendingInternational Journal of Public Sector Management, 2014
- What is Health Equity: And How Does a Life-Course Approach Take Us Further Toward It?Maternal and Child Health Journal, 2013
- Mother's country of birth and prescription of psychotropic medication in Swedish adolescents: a life course approachBMJ Open, 2012
- WHO European review of social determinants of health and the health divideThe Lancet, 2012
- A Framework to Measure the Value of Public Health ServicesHealth Services Research, 2009
- A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologiesHealth Information and Libraries Journal, 2009
- SCHOOLS, SKILLS, AND SYNAPSESEconomic Inquiry, 2008
- Complex interventions or complex systems? Implications for health economic evaluationBMJ, 2008
- A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology: conceptual models, empirical challenges and interdisciplinary perspectivesInternational Journal of Epidemiology, 2002