What does science say about the value of peer support?
Much evidence supports that peer support is a critical and effective strategy for ongoing health care and sustained behavior change for people with chronic diseases and other conditions, and its benefits can be extended to community, organizational and societal levels.
Overall, studies have found that social support:
- decreases morbidity and mortality rates
- increases life expectancy
- increases knowledge of a disease
- improves self-efficacy
- improves self-reported health status and self-care skills, including medication adherence
- reduces use of emergency services
Additionally, providers of social support report less depression, heightened self-esteem and self-efficacy, and improved quality of life.
Peer Support for Diabetes
Fisher, E. B., Boothroyd, R. I., Elstad, E. A., Hays, L., Henes, A., Maslow, G. R., & Velicer, C. (2017). Peer support of complex health behaviors in prevention and disease management with special reference to diabetes: systematic reviews. Clinical diabetes and endocrinology, 3, 4. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40842-017-0042-3 [Full Text]
Chen, C., Zhou, Y., Xu, J. Y., Song, H. Y., Yin, X. W., & Gu, Z. J. (2024). Effect of peer support interventions in patients with type 2 diabetes: A systematic review. Patient education and counseling, 122, 108172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2024.108172 [PubMed]
Verma, I., Gopaldasani, V., Jain, V., Chauhan, S., Chawla, R., Verma, P. K., & Hosseinzadeh, H. (2022). The impact of peer coach-led type 2 diabetes mellitus interventions on glycaemic control and self-management outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Primary care diabetes, 16(6), 719–735. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcd.2022.10.007 [PubMed]
Patil, S. J., Ruppar, T., Koopman, R. J., Lindbloom, E. J., Elliott, S. G., Mehr, D. R., & Conn, V. S. (2016). Peer Support Interventions for Adults With Diabetes: A Meta-Analysis of Hemoglobin A1c Outcomes. Annals of family medicine, 14(6), 540–551. https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.1982 [Full Text]
Pienaar, M., & Reid, M. (2020). Self-management in face-to-face peer support for adults with type 2 diabetes living in low- or middle-income countries: a systematic review. BMC public health, 20(1), 1834. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09954-1 [Full Text]
Afshar, R., Tang, T. S., Askari, A. S., Sidhu, R., Brown, H., & Sherifali, D. (2020). Peer support interventions in type 2 diabetes: Review of components and process outcomes. Journal of diabetes, 12(4), 315–338. https://doi.org/10.1111/1753-0407.12999 [PubMed]
Litchman, M. L., Oser, T. K., Hodgson, L., Heyman, M., Walker, H. R., Deroze, P., Rinker, J., & Warshaw, H. (2020). In-Person and Technology-Mediated Peer Support in Diabetes Care: A Systematic Review of Reviews and Gap Analysis. The Diabetes educator, 46(3), 230–241. https://doi.org/10.1177/0145721720913275 [PubMed]
Peer Support for Mental Health
Cooper, R. E., Saunders, K. R. K., Greenburgh, A., Shah, P., Appleton, R., Machin, K., Jeynes, T., Barnett, P., Allan, S. M., Griffiths, J., Stuart, R., Mitchell, L., Chipp, B., Jeffreys, S., Lloyd-Evans, B., Simpson, A., & Johnson, S. (2024). The effectiveness, implementation, and experiences of peer support approaches for mental health: a systematic umbrella review. BMC medicine, 22(1), 72. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-024-03260-y [Full Text]
Smit, D., Miguel, C., Vrijsen, J. N., Groeneweg, B., Spijker, J., & Cuijpers, P. (2023). The effectiveness of peer support for individuals with mental illness: systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological medicine, 53(11), 5332–5341. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722002422 [Full Text]
Høgh Egmose, C., Heinsvig Poulsen, C., Hjorthøj, C., Skriver Mundy, S., Hellström, L., Nørgaard Nielsen, M., Korsbek, L., Serup Rasmussen, K., & Falgaard Eplov, L. (2023). The Effectiveness of Peer Support in Personal and Clinical Recovery: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.), 74(8), 847–858. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.202100138 [PubMed]
Lyons, N., Cooper, C., & Lloyd-Evans, B. (2021). A systematic review and meta-analysis of group peer support interventions for people experiencing mental health conditions. BMC psychiatry, 21(1), 315. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-021-03321-z [Full Text]
Simmons, M. B., Cartner, S., MacDonald, R., Whitson, S., Bailey, A., & Brown, E. (2023). The effectiveness of peer support from a person with lived experience of mental health challenges for young people with anxiety and depression: a systematic review. BMC psychiatry, 23(1), 194. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-023-04578-2 [Full Text]
Pointon-Haas, J., Waqar, L., Upsher, R., Foster, J., Byrom, N., & Oates, J. (2023). A systematic review of peer support interventions for student mental health and well-being in higher education. BJPsych open, 10(1), e12. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2023.603 [Full Text]
Peer Support for a Multitude of Health Conditions
Price, A., de Bell, S., Shaw, N., Bethel, A., Anderson, R., & Coon, J. T. (2022). What is the volume, diversity and nature of recent, robust evidence for the use of peer support in health and social care? An evidence and gap map. Campbell systematic reviews, 18(3), e1264. https://doi.org/10.1002/cl2.1264 [Full Text]
Yuan, P., Westmaas, J. L., Thrul, J., Toussaert, S., Hilton, J. F., & White, J. S. (2023). Effectiveness of Peer-Support Interventions for Smoking Cessation: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, 25(9), 1515–1524. https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntad059 [PubMed]
Berg, R. C., Page, S., & Øgård-Repål, A. (2021). The effectiveness of peer-support for people living with HIV: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PloS one, 16(6), e0252623. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252623 [Full Text]
Sartore, G. M., Pourliakas, A., & Lagioia, V. (2021). Peer support interventions for parents and carers of children with complex needs. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 12(12), CD010618. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD010618.pub2 [Full Text]