Estimating the heterogeneous health and well‐being returns to social participation

Abstract

Social participation is defined as an individual's involvement in activities that provide connections with others in the society or community (Aroogh & Shahboulaghi, 2020;Levasseur et al., 2010). This can be achieved by engaging in a specific activity or volunteering (Richard et al., 2013). Over the past decade, there has been renewed interest amongst health and local government agencies in the United Kingdom (UK) in policies to encourage social participation. Most recently, the National Health Service (NHS) England has introduced "social prescribing" programmes in family practitioner practices (Howarth et al., 2020). These social prescribing schemes involve patients being prescribed for attending social groups on top of, or as an alternative to, medical therapeutics. Slightly earlier, the Local Government Association issued guidance to encourage community engagement,